A  MANUAL 


OP 


ENGLISH   LITERATURE 


HISTORICAL  AND  CRITICAL: 


WITH    AN     APPENDIX     ON     ENGLISH     METRES. 


BY 


THOMAS    ARNOLD,    M.A., 

OF  UNIVERSITY  COLLEGE,  OXPOBD. 


AMERICAN  EDITION,  RE  VISED. 


BOSTON,    U.S.A.: 

PUBLISHED  BY   GINN  &  CO31PANY 

1891. 


PUBLISHERS'  NOTICE  TO  THE  AMERICAN  EDITION, 


[!K  order  to  enable  them  to  present  this  valuable 
work  to  the  public  at  a  reduced  price,  the  American 
publishers  have  been  obliged  to  make  but  one  change, 
and  that  a  change  which  nowise  impairs  the  usefulness 
of  the  book.  In  place  of  the  long  preliminary  chapter 
in  the  English  edition,  th$y£  have  inserted  a  chapter 
from  Mr.  Arnold's  "  From  Chaucer  to  Wordsworth."  In 
the  opening  sentence  of  the  preface  to  the  latter  work, 
will  be  found  the  sufficient  reason  for  the  change.  "As 
the  following  work,"  says  he,  "is  designed  chiefly  for 
the  use  of  those  who  know  no  other  language  but 
English,  I  have  abridged  much  more  than  is  usual  that 
portion  of  the  history  which  relates  to  the  Saxon  and 
Anglo-Norman  times,  during  which  all  the  important 
works  that  appeared  in  England  were  written  in  Anglo- 
Saxon,  French,  or  Latin."] 


gtinScg'1 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  I. 
ANGLO-SAXON  AND  NORMAN  PERIOD:  449-1350. 

Introductory  Remarks  —  Section  I.  ;  ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD  —  King 
Alfred's  Translations —  "Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle"  —  "  Beowulf  "  — 
Alliteration  —  Extract  from  the  Chronicle  —  Section  II.  ;  NORMAN 
PERIOD  —  Effects  of  the  Conquest  —  Scholastic  Philosophy — St.  An- 
selm  —  Abelard  —  St.  Bernard  —  Peter  Lombard  —  Physical  Science 
—  Roger  Bacon  —  HISTORIANS  :  William  of  Malmesbury,  Geoffrey  of 
Monmouth,  Matthew  Paris  —  POETRY  :  Romances  and  Verse-Histo- 
ries, Lay  amon's  "Brut,"  Robert  Manning— Extracts  .  pages  9-20 

CHAPTER  n. 
EARLY  ENGLISH  PERIOD :  1350-1450. 

Latin  and  French  Compositions  —  Walsingham,  Fordun,  Wyclif  — 
Growth  of  the  English  Language  and  Literature  — Chaucer:  Sketch 
of  his  Life  ;  Chronology  of  his  Writings  —  Gower,  Langland,  Occleve, 
Lydgate,  Minot  —  SCOTTISH  POETS:  Barbour,  James  I.,  Wynton  — 
PROSE  WRITERS  :  Maundevile,  Chaucer,  Wyclif  .  .  .  21-44 

CHAPTER  III. 
REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING:  1450-1558. 

Decline  of  Literature  —  Invention  of  Printing—  Foundation  of  Schools 
and  Universities  —  POETRY  :  Hardyng,  Hawes,  Skelton,  Surrey, 
Wyat  ;  the  "Mirrour  for  Magistrates  ;"  first  Poet  Laureate  —  SCOT- 
TISH POETS  :  Henryson,  Dunbar,  Gawain  Douglas,  Lyndsay,  Blind 
Harry  —  LEARNING  :  Grocyn  ;  Liuacre  ;  Colet  ;  the  Humanities  ; 
State  of  the  Universities  —  PROSE  WRITERS  :  Pecock,  Fortescue, 
Caxton,  Leland,  More  (his  "Utopia")  —  Chroniclers:  Fabyan, 
Hall,  Graf  ton  —  Bale  —  Theological  Writers:  Latiiner,  More,  Roger 

Ascham 45-72 

1*  5 


0  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IV. 
ELIZABETHAN  PERIOD:   1558-1625. 

Brilliant  Period  of  our  Literature  ;  connected  with  the  Social  Prosperity 
of  the  Country  —  POETS  AND  DRAMATISTS  :  Spenser,  Shakspeare's 
Poems,  Southwell,  Warner,  Daniel,  Drayton,  Donne,  Davies,  Chap- 
man, Marston,  Raleigh  —  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  English  Drama  — 
Miracle-plays  —  Coventry  Mysteries  —  Earliest  Comedy  —  Hey  wood's 
Interludes  —  Earliest  Tragedy  —  Dramatic  Unities — Greene's  Pam- 
phlet—  Shakspeare:  Sketch  of  his  Life  ;  his  Comedies  ;  his  Tragedies; 
his  Historical  Plays  —  Ben  Jonson  —  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  —  Mas- 
singer,  Ford,  Webster,  Marston,  Chapman,  Dekker,  T.  Hey  wood,  Mid- 
dleton,  Rowley,  Tourneur,  Shirley  —  Suppression  of  the  Stage  — 
PROSE-WRITERS  :  Novels  ;  Books  of  Travel ;  Essays  ;  Bacon,  Burton  ; 
Puttenham  ;  Sir  Philip  Sidney  ;  Earliest  Newspaper — HISTORIANS  : 
Holinshed,  Camden,  Lord  Bacon,  Speed,  Knolles,  Raleigh,  Foxe  — 
THEOLOGIANS:  Jewel,  Hooker,  Audrewes  ;  Translation  of  the  Bible  — 
PHILOSOPHY  :  Lord  Bacon  ;  Explanation  of  his  Method  ;  His  Phil- 
osophical Works  —  Political  Science  :  Buchanan,  Spenser,  Raleigh, 
Elyot 73-153 

CHAPTER  V. 
CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD:    1625-1700. 

Historical  Sketch  of  the  leading  Political  Events  —  POETRY:  Jonson; 
the  Fantastic  School;  Co wley,  Waller,  Crashaw  —  Song- Writers :  Her- 
bert, Wotton,  Corbet,  Carew,  Druuimond,  Cleveland,  Herrick,  Love- 
lace, Denham:  Milton,  Sketch  of  his  Literary  Life ;  Wither,  Marvell; 
Dryden,  Sketch  of  his  Literary  Life;  Roscommon,  Butler,  Davenant  — 
Heroic  Plays:  Dryden,  Otway,  Lee,  Shad  well,  Settle,  Crowne,  Behn  — 
Comedy  of  Manners:  Congreve,  Jeremy  Collier  —  LEARNING:  Usher, 
Selden,  Gale,  &c.  —  PROSE  FICTION  :  Buny an  —  HISTORY  AND  BIOG- 
RAPHY: Milton,  Ludlow,  Clarendon,  &c. ;  Wood's  "  Athense ;"  Fuller, 
Pepys,  Evelyn,  &c. — THEOLOGY:  Hall,  Jeremy  Taylor,  Bull,  Leigh- 
ton,  Pearson,  Lightfoot,  Baxter  —  PHILOSOPHY  :  Hobbes,  Cud  worth, 
Locke,  Harrington  — Ess  AY- WRITERS:  Hall,  Felthaui,  Browne  — 
SCIENCE:  Newton 154-221 

CHAPTER  VI. 

EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY:   1700-1800. 

Historical  Sketch,  General  Characteristics  —  POETRY  FROM  1700  TO 
1745 :  Pope,  Sketch  of  his  Literary  Life ;  Addison,  Gay,  Parnell,  Swift, 
Thomson,  Prior,  Garth,  Blackmore,  Defoe,  Tickell,  Savage,  Dyer,  A. 
Philips,  J.  Philips,  Watts,  Ramsay  — THE  DRAMA:  Addison,  Rowe, 
Thomson,  Young,  Southern,  Steele  —  Prose  Comedy :  Farquhar,  Van- 
brugh,  Cibber,  Ceutlivre,  Gay  —  LEARNING,  1700-1745 :  Bentley,  Lard- 


CONTENTS.  7 

ner  —  PROSE  FICTION:  Swift,  Defoe  —  Pamphleteers  :  S\vift,  Arbuth- 
not  —  Periodical  Miscellany:  "Tatler,"  "Spectator,"  "Guardian,"  &c. 
—  Satirical  Works:  Swift's  "Tale  of  a  Tub  "  —HISTORY,  1700-1745: 
Burnet,  Rapin —  POETRY,  1745-1800:  Johnson,  Gray,  Churchill,  Cow- 
per,  Burns,  Minor  Poets,  "The  Rolliad"— THE  DRAMA:  Home,  John- 
son, Goldsmith,  Sheridan,  and  others  — PROSE  FICTION,  1745-1800: 
Richardson,  Fielding,  Smollett,  Sterne,  Goldsmith,  Miss  Burney,  God- 
win —ORATORY:  Chatham,  Burke,  &c.— Pamphleteers:  Jtmius,  Burke, 
Johnson  —  HISTORY,  1745-1800:  Hume,  Robertson,  Gibbon  —  Biogra- 
phers: Boswell,  &c  —THEOLOGY:  the  English  Deists;  Bentley,  But- 
ler's "Analogy,"  Berkeley;  Warburton;  Methodism;  Middleton; 
Challoner  —  PHILOSOPHY  :  Berkeley,  Hume,  Reid,  Butler,  Paley — 
Political  Science:  Hume,  Burke,  Godwin,  Paine  — Political  Economy: 
Adam  Smith  —  Criticism :  Burke,  Reynolds,  &c.  .  .  .  222-301 


CHAPTER  VII. 
MODERN   TIMES:    1800-1850. 

Re-action  against  the  Ideas  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  —  Theory  of  the 
Spontaneous  in  Poetry.  —  POETRY  :  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Sketch  of  his 
Literary  Life;  Keats,  Shelley,  Byron,  Crabbe,  Coleridge,  Southey, 
Campbell,  Wordsworth,  Moore,  Hood,  Hogg,  &c.  —  PROSE  WRITERS: 
Summary  Account  of 302-340 


CRITICAL    SECTION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Definition  of  Literature  — Poetry  and  Prose  Writings— Classification 
of  Poetical  Compositions  — EPIC  POETRY:  the  "  Paradise  Lost "  —  DRA- 
MATIC POETRY:  its  Kinds;  Shakspeare,  Addison,  Ben  Jonson,  Milton 
—  HEROIC  POETRY:  "The  Bruce,"  " The  Campaign  "  —  Mock-Heroic 
Poems:  Pope's  "Rape  of  the  Lock,"  Garth's  "Dispensary" — NAR- 
RATIVE POETRY:  1.  Romances:  "Sir  Isumbras;"  2.  Tales:  Chaucer 
and  the  Canterbury  Tales,  Falconer,  Crabbe,  Parnell;  3.  Allegories: 
"Vision  of  Piers  Plowman,"  "  Flower  and  the  Leaf,"  Spenser's  "Fae- 
ry Queen,"  "Castle  of  Indolence;"  Fables:  Gay,  Mrs.  Thrale,  Mer- 
rick;  4.  Romantic  Poems:  Scott's  "  Lay  "  and  others;  Byron's  Orien- 
tal Tales;  "LallaRookh;"  5  Historical  Poems:  Rhyming  Chroniclers; 
Dryden's  "  Annus  Mirabilis  "  —  DIDACTIC  POETRY:  "The  Hind  and 
Panther;"  "Essay  on  Man;"  "Essay  on  Criticism;"  "Vanity  of 
Human  Wishes"  —  SATIRICAL  POETRY:  of  three  Kinds,  Moral,  Per- 
sonal, Political;  Satires  of  Donne,  Hall,  and  Swift;  Pope's  Satires, 


8  CONTENTS. 

Moral  Essays,  "The  Dtmciad;"  Dryden's  "M'Flecknoe;"  "English 
Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers ;"  "Hudibras;"  "Absalom  and  Achito- 
phel,"  Churchill,  Peter  Pindar,  Moore's  Satires,  "The  Vicar  of 
Bray  "  —  PASTORAL  POETRY-:  Spenser,  Browne,  Pope,  Shenstoue  — 
DESCRIPTIVE  POETRY:  "  Polyolbion,"  "  Cooper's  Hill,"  "  The  Seasons  " 
—  LYRICAL  POETRY  :  its  Kinds ;  Devotional,  Loyal,  Patriotic,  Amatory, 
Bacchanalian,  Martial ;  Specimens  of  each  Kind  —  ELEGIAC  POETRY  : 
"Fidele,"  "The  Castaway,"  "  Lycidas,"  "Adonais" — MISCELLANE- 
OUS POETRY:  1.  Poems  founded  on  the  Passions  and  Affections;  2. 
Poems  of  Sentiment  and  Reflection:  "Childe  Harold,"  Wordsworth's 
"Ode;"  3.  Poems  of  Imagination  and  Fancy:  Shelley's  "Skylark;" 
4.  Philosophical  Poetry 341-156 

CHAPTER  H. 

Prose  Writings  — 1.  PROSE  FICTION;  Classification  of  Works  of  Fiction. 
Historical  Novels:  Scott.  Novels  of  High  Life:  Richardson.  Novels 
of  Middle  Life:  Fielding,  Miss  Austen.  Novels  of  Low  Life:  Dickens, 
Smollett  —  WORKS  OF  SATIRE,  WIT,  AND  HUMOR:  "Tale  of  a  Tub;" 
"Battle  of  the  Books;"  " The  Anti- Jacobin ;"  Sterne;  Sydney  Smith 
— 3  ORATORY:  its  Kinds;  Jeremy  Taylor;  Burke;  Journalism;  Pamph- 
leteering, illustrated  from  Milton,  Swift,  and  Byron  —  4.  HISTORY: 
Contemporary  and  Retrospective;  Clarendon,  Raleigh,  Gibbon,  Lord 
Bacon  —  Biography :  its  Divisions ;  Diaries ;  Letters  —  5.  THEOLOGY  : 
its  Branches ;  leading  Works  in  each  —  6.  PHILOSOPHY —  Logic :  Bacon, 
Whately,  Mill,  Hamilton  — Psychology:  1.  Moral  Philosophy,  But- 
ler, &c. ;  Intellectual  Philosophy:  Locke,  Reid,  Hamilton  —  Meta- 
physics: Cud  worth,  More,  Berkeley,  Hume,  Coleridge  —  Political 
Science:  Filmer,  Hobbes,  Milton,  Burke  —  ESSAYS:  Bacon,  Feltham, 
Foster,  &c. — CRITICISM:  1.  Philosophical:  Bacon's  "  Advancement  of 
Learning;"  2.  Literary:  Sidney,  Dryden,  &c.;  3.  Artistic:  Ruskin, 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  ...  457-517 

APPENDIX. 

On  English  Metres 521-535 

INDEX 539-547 

LIST  OF  EXTRACTS    .  .  548-549 


(MI7EK3JTF 

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HISTOET 


OP 


ENGLISH    LITERATURE. 


CHAPTER  I. 
ANGLO-SAXON  AND  NORMAN  PERIODS. 

449-1350. 

IN  undertaking  to  write  a  short  history  of  English 
literature,  it  may  be  useful  to  place  one's  self,  at  the 
outset,  in  the  position  of  a  person  to  whom  the  subject 
is  wholly  new. 

Every  one  possessed  of  any  education  cannot  fail  to 
be  acquainted  with  a  certain  number  of  English  books, 
and  to  know  of  the  existence  of  many  more  ;  and  also 
must  often  hear  the  names  of  English  men  or  women, 
dead  or  alive,  spoken  of  as  having  become  distinguished 
through  writing  books.  It  is  said,  that,  on  the  average, 
not  fewer  than  two  thousand  distinct  works,  upon  every 
conceivable  subject,  are  published  in  this  country  every 
year.  Now,  this  country  in  which  we  live  has  been 
inhabited  by  men  more  or  less  civilized,  for  at  least 
thirty  successive  generations ;  and,  although  it  is  but  of 
late  years  that  our  countrymen  have  taken  to  writing 
books  at  such  a  prodigious  rate,  it  is  obvious  that  the 
same  causes  which  at  the  present  day  are  continually 
adding  to  the  number  of  English  books  must  have 


10  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

been  more  or  less  at  work  for  a  very  long  time  past ; 
from  which  it  follows  that  the  entire  stock  of  English 
books  must  be  very  large  indeed.  When  we  have 
arrived  at  this  conclusion,  various  questions  at  once 
suggest  themselves ;  such  as,  What  proportion  of  all 
the  English  books  that  have  been  written  since  the 
English  race  settled  in  this  island  have  been  preserved 
to  our  times  ?  Are  many  of  those  that  have  survived 
worth  preserving,  or  the  contrary,  and  on  what  grounds  ? 
Were  the  old  books  written  in  the  same  sort  of  Eng- 
lish that  we  now  use  ?  and,  if  not,  what  was  the  nature 
of  the  difference  ?  These  and  many  similar  questions 
will  naturally  occur ;  and  it  is  in  order  to  furnish 
something  like  satisfactory  answers,  that  the  present 
work  has  been  prepared. 

The  word  "  literature "  is  used  in  two  principal 
senses,  —  to  express  the  whole  number  of  books  that 
have  been  written  in  any  language  (thus  we  speak  of 
the  Greek,  French,  German,  literatures,  &c.)  ;  and 
also  to  signify  the  profession  or  pursuit  of  writing,  as 
when  we  speak  of  a  person  addicting  himself  to  litera- 
ture. But  the  former  of  these  two  senses  is  much  the 
more  common ;  and  it  is  the  one  which  will  be  adhered 
to  throughout  the  present  work. 

The  English  race  first  began  to  colonize  this  country 
about  fourteen  hundred  years  ago.  Before  that  time, 
England  was  called  Britain,  and  was  inhabited  by  a 
people  of  Celtic  origin,  allied  to  the  modern  Welsh 
(and,  more  remotely,  to  the  Irish),  known  as  Britons. 
The  language  spoken  by  the  Britons  was  quite  differ- 
ent from  English;  and  therefore,  whatever  books  may 
have  been  written  in  that  language,  either  before  or 
after  the  arrival  of  the  English  race,  they  do  not  con- 
cern us,  who  are  only  inquiring  into  the  history  of 
English  literature. 


ANGLO-SAXON   AND  NORMAN  PERIODS.  11 

The  first  English  who  arrived  on  our  shores  called 
themselves  Angles.  They  came  from  Schleswig-Hol- 
stein,  that  border-land  between  Denmark  and  Ger- 
many, which  has  been  for  centuries  a  bone  of  conten- 
tion between  the  Dane  and  the  German.  But  the 
language  which  they  then  spoke  approached,  on  the 
whole,  nearer  to  German  than  to  Danish,  though  it 
exhibits  points  of  resemblance  to  both.  They  were 
joined  in  their  great  colonizing  enterprise  by  the  Sax- 
ons, a  people  occupying  both  banks  of  the  Elbe  near 
its  mouth,  and  by  other  German  tribes.  The  language 
spoken  by  the  Saxons  seems  to  have  agreed  very  closely 
with  that  spoken  by  the  Angles,  though  it  had  proba- 
bly fewer  Danish  peculiarities ;  and,  in  consequence  of 
this  close  agreement,  their  common  tongue  has  received 
the  name  of  Anglo-Saxon.  The  Angles  gave  their 
name  to  the  country,  Angla  or  Engla-land,  England. 

In  the  course  of  about  two  hundred  years  from  the 
date  (A.D.  449)  of  their  first  arrival,  these  Angles  and 
Saxons  had  established  themselves  in  the  greater  part 
of  England,  and  in  the  Lowlands  of  Scotland.  Their 
language  was  spoken  from  the  Orkneys  to  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  and  from  Norwich  to  Dorchester.  It  may  now 
be  asked,  Was  this  language  like  the  English  that  we 
speak  now?  Did  they  write  any  books  in  it?  And 
have  these  books  been  preserved  ?  These  questions 
will  be  answered  in  the  following  section. 

SECTION  1. — ANGLO-SAXON  LITERATURE  (449-1066). 

The  language  which  our  Angle  and  Saxon  fore- 
fathers spoke  was  very  different  from  ours ;  and  the 
difference  consisted  principally  in  this :  that  a  very 
large  number  of  French  and  Latin  words  have,  since 
their  time,  been  added  to  the  old  stock,  while  many  of 
their  words  have  fallen  into  disuse.  Another  difference 


12  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

is,  that,  while  our  grammar  is  very  simple,  theirs  was 
very  complicated.  Consequently,  however  well  ac- 
quainted we  may  be  with  English,  we  shall  be  able  to 
make  nothing  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  book  without  special 
study :  at  most  we  might  recognize  a  familiar  word  or 
two  here  and  there.  This  being  the  case,  I  do  not 
intend  to  dwell  upon  this  part  of  the  subject ;  for« 
though  we  have  got  upon  the  English  race,  it  is  plain 
that  we  have  not  yet  got  to  English  literature. 
However,  since  what  our  forefathers  thought  and  wrote 
can  never  be  quite  uninteresting  to  us,  I  shall  give 
brief  answers  to  the  two  other  questions  which  I  sup- 
posed to  be  asked,  and  also  print,  at  the  end  of  the 
section,  a  few  lines  from  an  Anglo-Saxon  book,  as  a 
specimen  of  their  language. 

While  they  lived  in  Germany,  and  for  the  first 
hundred  and  fifty  years  after  they  landed  in  England, 
we  do  not  know  that  the  Angles  and  Saxons  wrote  any 
books :  if  they  did,  they  have  not  come  down  to  us. 
During  all  that  time  they  were  Pagans,  worshipping 
Thor,  Woden,  and  other  imaginary  deities,  who  were 
the  objects  of  belief  among  the  northern  nations.  But, 
about  the  year  600  after  Christ,  St.  Augustine  and 
other  missionaries,  who  were  sent  from  Rome  by  Pope 
Gregory  the  Great,  commenced  the  conversion  of  the 
Anglo-Saxons  to  Christianity.  At  the  same  time  that 
they  taught  them  religion,  these  good  men  communi- 
cated to  their  disciples  many  other  good  and  useful 
things ;  in  particular,  they  instructed  them  in  the  use 
of  the  Roman  alphabet,  and  taught  them  to  read  Greek 
and  Latin  books.  How  important  this  was  will  clearly 
appear,  when  we  consider  that,  at  that  time,  no  litera- 
ture existed  in  any  other  European  language  except 
these  two.  From  reading  and  copying  Greek  and  Latin 
books,  the  Anglo-Saxons  soon  advanced  to  writing 


ANGLO-SAXON  AND  NOEMAN  PEBIODS.  13 

books  in  their  own  language.  Of  these  books  many 
have  been  preserved,  and  are  now  to  be  had  in  print. 
The  great  King  Alfred  is  the  author  of  many  transla- 
tions of  Latin  books,  mostly  histories,  into  Anglo-Saxon. 
The  most  interesting  among  these  is  his  translation  of 
"  The  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  Venerable  Bede,"  a 
work  of  the  utmost  value  for  the  history  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  times.  There  is  also  a  valuable  book,  called 
"  The  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,"  which  gives  an  account 
of  most  of  the  important  events  which  happened  in 
England,  from  the  Christian  era  down  to  the  year  1154: 
this  book  was  put  together  by  the  monks  of  different 
monasteries.  Of  the  poetry  the  greater  portion  is  upon 
sacred  subjects ;  but  we  have  also  a  long  and  very 
curious  poem  called  "  Beowulf,"  in  which  are  related 
the  adventures  and  great  deeds  of  northern  warriors  in 
Denmark  and  the  south  of  Sweden.  The  rhythm  of 
all  the  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  depended  on  what  is  called 
alliteration ;  the  lines,  arranged  in  couplets,  were  short, 
each  containing  two  accents  ;  and  the  general  rule  was, 
that  two  accented  syllables  in  the  first  line  of  each 
couplet,  and  one  accented  syllable  in  the  second  line, 
should  all  begin  with  the  same  letter ;  e.g.,  — 

Heofon  to  hrofe, 
,  Halig  Scippend. 

[Heaven  for  roof, 
Holy  Creator.] 

The  following  extract  is  taken  from  "  The  Anglo- 
Saxon  Chronicle ;  "  it  refers  to  the  year  457 :  — 

Her  Hengest  and  ^Esc  his  sunu  gefuhton  wi$  Bryttas,  on  baere 
stowe  ]?e  is  gecweden  Creccanford,  and  pser  ofslogon  feower  pusenda 
wera.  And  $a  Bryttas  J>a  forleton  Cent-lond,  and  inid  myclum  ege 
flugon  to  Lunden-byrig.1 

1  Note,  that  the  character  %  represents  the  sound  of  th  in  this  ;  and 
the  character  J>,  the  sound  of  th  in  thin. 


14  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

TRANSLATION. 

At  this  time  Hengest  and  JEsc  his  son  fought  against  the  Britons 
at  the  place  which  is  called  Crayford,  and  there  slew  four  thousand 
men.  And  then  the  Britons  they  forsook  Kent-land,  and  with  much 
dismay  fled  to  London-town. 

SECTION  2.  —  THE  NORMAN  PERIOD  (1066-1350). 

In  the  year  1066,  William,  Duke  of  Normandy, 
brought  an  army  over  to  England,  defeated  King 
Harold  at  Hastings  in  Sussex,  and  had  himself  crowned 
King  of  England.  The  Normans,  who  formed  the 
greater  portion  of  his  army,  were  originally,  as  the 
name  itself  implies,  North-men,  or  inhabitants  of  the 
North  of  Europe  (Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden), 
who  had  settled  in  France  about  the  year  950.  During 
their  sojourn  in  France,  they  had  unlearned  their  own 
language,  and  had  adopted  that  of  their  French  neigh- 
bors. Thus  it  happened,  that,  for  a  long  time  after  the 
Norman  conquest,  the  king,  nearly  all  his  nobles  and 
knights,  and  all  the  leading  men  among  the  clergy, 
spoke  in  French,  and  wrote  either  in  French  or  in  Latins 
having  no  more  knowledge  of  the  tongue  of  the  natives 
than  was  required  to  make  their  orders  intelligible  to 
the  peasants  who  worked  for  them,  and  often  not  even 
so  much  as  that. 

During  the  whole  of  this  period,  what  literature 
there  was  was  for  the  most  part  composed  by  the 
clergy ;  for  very  few  of  the  laity  could  read  and  write, 
The  clergy  alone  had  leisure  and  opportunity  for  accu- 
mulating that  acquaintance  with  the  works  of  previous 
thinkers,  and  that  knowledge  of  past  transactions, 
without  one  or  the  other  of  which,  nothing  can  be 
done  in  theology,  philosophy,  or  history.  St.  Anselm 
(an  Italian  by  birth,  but  holding  the  see  of  Canterbury 
under  William  II.  and  Henry  I.)  was  the  first  who 


ANGLO-SAXON  AND  NOKMAN  PERIODS.  15 

endeavored  to  clothe  religious  doctrines  in  philosophical 
formulas.  The  famous  Abelard,  a  Frenchman,  asserted 
the  identity  of  faith  and  reason,  a  doctrine  from  which 
the  inference  is  easy,  that  what  is  inconsistent  with 
reason  can  be  no  part  of  the  true  faith.  St.  Bernard, 
who  flourished  in  the  first  half  of  the  twelfth  century, 
eloquently  combated  this  view.  The  scholastic  philos- 
ophy founded  by  Peter  Lombard,  author  of  "  The 
Book  of  Sentences,"  a  work  which  appeared  at  Paris 
in  1151,  soon  engrossed  all  the  most  powerful  thinkers 
in  Europe.  Several  of  the  leading  "school-men"  — 
Alexander  Hales,  styled  "  the  Irrefragable,"  Duns 
Scotus,  "  the  Subtle  Doctor,"  and  William  of  Occam, 
"  the  Invincible  Doctor  "  —  were  natives  of  the  British 
Isles.  But  all  their  works  were  written  in  Latin ; 
great  part  of  their  lives  was  spent  abroad ;  and  the 
influence  which  they  exerted,  besides  that  it  extended 
quite  as  much  to  foreign  countries  as  to  England,  was 
almost  confined  to  members  of  their  own  profession. 
It  will  not  be  expected,  therefore,  that,  in  a  work  of  a 
purely  elementary  character,  any  detailed  account  of 
their  writings  can  be  given. 

In  the  department  of  science,  a  great  light  appeared 
in  England  in  the  thirteenth  century.  This  was  Roger 
Bacon,  a  friar  in  the  Franciscan  monastery  at  Oxford, 
who  in  his  Opus  Majus  ("  Greater "  or  "  Principal 
Work  "),  propounds  most  enlightened  views  upon  the 
value  of  experiment  as  a  means  of  arriving  at  physical 
truth.  He  was  encouraged  by  the  high-minded  Pope 
Clement  IV.,  but  condemned  and  imprisoned  under  his 
narrow-minded  successor,  Nicholas.  In  truth,  he  was 
so  far  in  advance  of  his  age,  that  his  scientific  re- 
searches communicated  no  stimulus,  and  found  no 
imitators. 

The  historians,  too,  were  all  ecclesiastics,  and  wrote 


16  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

in  Latin.  William  of  Malmesbury,  the  first  competent 
historian  since  the  time  of  Bede,  wrote  a  "  History  of 
the  Kings  of  England,"  which  comes  down  to  the  year 
1142.  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  who  lived  about  the 
same  time,  is  the  author  of  a  well-known  fabulous 
"  History  of  the  Britons,"  from  which  the  romance- 
writers  drew  the  materials  for  their  poems  about  Arthur 
and  the  Knights  of  the  Round  Table.  Among  many 
other  names,  we  shall  only  mention  that  of  Matthew 
Paris,  a  monk  of  St.  Albans,  the  author  of  a  volumi- 
nous and  valuable  chronicle,  coming  down  to  the  year 
1259. 

Lay  writers  in  this  period  confined  themselves  to 
poetry  ;  not  that  they  had  the  monopoly  of  that.  Num- 
bers of  witty,  satirical,  and  sometimes  coarse  poems, 
were  written  in  Latin,  by  priests  or  monks.  But  our 
business  is  only  with  what  was  written  in  the  vernacu- 
lar languages.  Before  the  Normans  came  over  to 
England,  many  poets  had  appeared  in  France ;  and  a 
considerable  taste  for  literature,  especially  for  poetry, 
had  sprung  up  in  that  country.  In  their  new  homes, 
the  Normans  did  not  lose  this  taste :  on  the  contrary, 
poets  and  minstrels  were  more  and  more  appreciated 
and  caressed ;  and  even  one  of  our  kings,  Richard  L, 
was  proud  to  rank  himself  among  their  number.  Few 
laymen  knew  how  to  read  in  those  times :  so  the  custom 
was  for  minstrels  and  reciting  poets  to  stroll  about  the 
country  from  castle  to  castle,  repeating  at  each,  to  a 
delighted  audience,  long  passages  from  historical  or 
romantic  poems,  generally  with  musical  accompani- 
ment. But  these  poems  were  all  in  French,  and  there- 
fore we  have  no  direct  concern  with  them ;  it  was 
necessary,  however,  to  say  something  about  them, 
because  the  first  rude  literary  attempts  in  English, 
after  the  Conquest,  were  all  either  imitations  or  trans- 


ANGLO-SAXON   AND   NORMAN   PERIODS.  17 

lations  of  these  French  pieces.  Romances  and  verse- . 
histories  were  the  chief  productions  of  those  ages. 
Romances  were  originally  so  called  because  they  were 
written  in  the  Romance  tongue,  that  is,  the  dialect 
which  the  Roman  occupation  of  Gaul  (France)  had 
caused  to  grow  up  out  of  the  gradual  corruption  of 
the  Latin  language,  and  its  adulteration  with  foreign 
words.  Many  of  the  tales  with  which  story-books 
make  us  familiar  in  our  childhood,  as  that  of  Guy  of 
Warwick  and  the  Dun  Cow,  or  that  of  Roland  and 
Oliver,  or  that  of  Be  vis  of  Hampton,  were  originally 
French  romances,  composed  at  the  period  I  am  speaking 
of :  they  were  then  translated  into  English  verse,  and, 
after  being  told  in  many  different  ways,  have  at  last 
made  their  appearance  in  our  popular  story-books.  Of 
the  verse-histories  in  English,  the  earliest  known  was 
written  by  a  Worcestershire  monk  called  Layamon : 
it  is  called  the  "  Brut,"  that  is,  the  chronicle,  and  is  a 
free  translation  of  a  French  verse-history  of  England, 
written  by  one  Richard  Wace.  Another  work  of 
the  same  kind  is  the  rhyming  chronicle  of  Robert 
Manning,  of  which  a  specimen  will  be  given  presently. 
Besides  these  pieces,  a  few  ballads  and  hymns  have 
come  down  to  us.  In  all  these,  and  also  in  the  verse- 
histories,  except  that  of  Layamon,  many  French  words 
occur,  —  the  inevitable  consequence  of  the  daily  inter- 
course and  close  contact  of  two  populations,  one 
speaking  French,  the  other  English.  In  the  next 
period,  we  shall  see  this  process  going  on  still  more 
actively. 

Speaking  of  himself  as  an  author,  Layamon,  who 
flourished  in  the  reign  of  John,  or  about  the  year  1200, 
thus  writes :  — 

"  He  wonede  at  Ernleie 
Wid  than  gode  cnihte, 


18  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

Uppen  Sevarne ; 

Merie  ther  him  thohte ; 

Faste  bi  Radistone : 

Ther  heo  bokes  radde. 

Hit  com  him  on  mode, 

And  on  his  thonke, 

That  he  wolde  of  Engelond 

The  rihtnesse  telle ; 

Wat  the  men  i-hote  weren, 

And  wancne  hi  comen, 

The  Englene  loud 

.^Erest  afdeii 

After  than  flode, 

That  f  ram  God  com ; 

That  al  ere  acwelde 

Cwic  that  hit  funde, 

Bot  Noe  and  Sem, 

Japhet  and  Cam, 

And  hire  four  wifes, 

That  mid  ham  there  weren."  l 

The  following  is  a  literal  translation :  — 

"He  dwelt  at  Emley,  with  the  good  knight,  upon  the  Severn; 
pleasant  it  seemed  to  him  there ;  close  by  Radistone :  there  he  books 
read.  It  came  into  his  mind,  and  in  his  thought,  that  he  would  of 
England  the  exact  story  tell;  what  the  men  were 'called,  and  whence 
they  came,  who  first  occupied  the  English  land,  after  the.  flood  that 
from  God  came,  that  quelled  [killed]  all  here  that  it  found  quick 
[alive],  except  Xoe  and  Sem,  Japhet  and  Cam  [Ham],  and  their  four 
wives  that  were  with  them  there." 

Robert  Manning's  English,  as  will  be  seen,  is  of  a 
much  more  advanced  character.  The  following  passage 
is  from  the  opening  of  the  second  part  of  his  chronicle, 
which  was  composed  about  the  year  1330 :  — 

"  Lordynges  that  be  now  here, 

If  ye  wille  listene  and  lere  [learn] 

All  the  story  of  Inglande, 

Als  [as]  Robert  Mannyng  wryten  [written]  it  land, 

And  on  Inglysch  has  it  schewed, 

1  Extracted,  with  a  few  slight  corrections,  from  Craik's  Outlines 
of  the  History  of  the  English  Language. 


ANGLO-SAXON  AND   NORMAN  PERIODS.  19 

Not  for  the  lered  but  for  the  lewed  [lay  people] ; 

For  tho  [those]  that  on  this  land  wonn  [dwell] 

That  the  Latin  ne  Frankys  conn  [know  neither  Latin  nor  French], 

For  to  hauf  solace  and  gamen, 

In  felauschip  when  tha  sitt  samen  [together] ; 

And  it  is  wisdom  for  to  wytten  [know] 

The  state  of  the  land,  and  hef  it  wryten, 

What  manere  of  folk  first  it  wan, 

And  of  what  kynde  it  first  began ; 

And  gude  it  is  for  many  thynges 

For  to  here  [hear]  the  dedis  of  kynges, 

Whilk  [which]  were  foles,  and  whilk  were  wyse, 

And  whilk  of  tham  couth  [knew]  most  quantyse  [quaintness,  i.e., 

artfulness] ; 

And  whilk  did  wrong,  and  whilk  ryght, 
And  whilk  mayntened  pes  [peace]  and  fight. 
Of  thare  dedes  sail  be  mi  sawe  [story], 
In  what  tyme,  and  of  what  law, 

I  sholl  you  tell,  from  gre  to  gre  [degree,  i.e.,  step  by  step] 
Sen  [since]  the  tyme  of  Sir  Noe." 

The  language  of  the  "  Ormulum,"  a  singular  poem  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  not  rhymed  but  rhythmical,  is 
of  an  intermediate  character ;  it  has  fewer  Anglo-Saxon 
forms,  and  more  French  or  Latin  words,  than  Laya- 
mon's  "  Brut,"  but  is  much  less  modernized  than  that  of 
Manning.  It  consists  of  passages  and  narratives,  taken 
from  Scripture,  and  rudely  versified,  with  accompanying 
commentaries.  The  date  of  its  composition  is  supposed 
to  be  about  1250.  The  following  passage  may  serve  as 
a  specimen :  — 

"  Annd  o  ]?att  illke  nahht  tatt  Crist 
Wass  borenn  her  to  manne, 
Wass  He  yet,  alls  His  wille  wass, 
Awwnedd  onn  operr  wise. 
He  sette  a  steorne  upp  o  pe  liff  t 
Full  brad,  and  brihht,  and  shene, 
On  test  hallf  o  piss  middlelaerd, 
Swa  summ  pe  goddspell  ki]?epp, 
Amang  patt  follc  ]?att  cann  innsihht 
Off  mani  ping  purrh  steorrness, 
Amang  J?e  Calldeowisshe  peod 


20  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

J?att  cann  mnsihht  o  steorrness. 
And  patt  peod  wass  haBpene  J>eod 
patt  Crist  gaff  )?a  swillc  takenn ; 
Forrpi  patt  He  peggm  wollde  J>a 
To  rihhte  laefe  wendenn. 
And  son  se  pegg  j?att  steorrne  leom 
J?aer  sseghenn  upp  o  liffte, 
preo  kingess  off  patt  illke  land 
Full  wel  itt  unnderrstodenn, 
And  wisstenn  witerrlig  pserpurrh 
]?att  swillc  new  king  wass  awwnedd, 
patt  wass  soj?  Godd  l  and  so]?  mann  ec, 
An  had  off  twinne  kinde."  2 

TRANSLATION. 

11  And  on  that  same  night  that  Christ 
Was  born  here  as  man, 
Was  He,  as  His  will  was, 
Manifested  in  yet  another  fashion. 
He  set  a  star  up  in  the  sky 
Full  broad,  and  bright,  and  fair, 
On  the  east  side  of  this  middle-earth, 
Even  as  the  gospel  declares, 
Among  that  people  that  knows  insight 
Of  many  things  through  the  stars, 
Among  the  Chaldaean  people, 
That  knows  insight  of  stars. 
And  that  people  was  a  heathen  people, 
To  which  Christ  gave  then  such  a  token, 
Because  that  He  them  would  then 
To  right  belief  turn. 
And,  as  soon  as  they  that  star's  gleam 
There  saw  up  in  the  sky, 
Three  kings  of  that  same  land 
Full  well  it  understood, 
And  knew  clearly  thereby 
That  such  a  new  king  was  showed  forth, 
Who  was  true  God  and  true  man  also, 
One  person  of  two  natures." 

1  The  doubling  of  the  consonants  throughout  this  extract  is  merely 
a  peculiar  device  employed  by  Ormin,  the  author,  to  indicate  that  the 
preceding  vowel  in  all  such  cases  is  short. 

2  From  the  Ormulum  (edited  by  Dr.  K.  White,  1852),  yol.  L,  line 
6,426. 


EARLY  ENGLISH  PERIOD.  21 


CHAPTER  II. 
EARLY  ENGLISH  PERIOD. 

1350-1450. 

HITHEETO  such  English  writers  as  we  have  met  with 
since  the  Conquest  have  generally  appeared  in  the 
humble  guise  of  translators  or  imitators.  In  the 
period  before  us  we  at  last  meet  with  original  invention 
applied  on  a  large  scale  :  this,  therefore,  is  the  point 
at  which  English  literature  takes  its  true  commence- 
ment. 

The  Latin  and  French  compositions,  which  engaged 
so  much  of  our  attention  in  the  previous  period,  may 
in  this  be  disposed  of  in  a  few  words.  That  English- 
men still  continued  to  write  French  poetry,  we  have 
the  proof  in  many  unprinted  poems  by  Gower,  and 
might  also  infer  from  a  passage,  often  quoted,  in  the 
prologue  to  Chaucer's  "  Testament  of  Love."  But  few 
such  pieces  are  of  sufficient  merit  to  bear  printing.  In 
French  prose  scarcely  any  thing  can  be  mentioned 
besides  the  despatches,  treaties,  &c.,  contained  in 
Rymer's  "  Foedera,"  and  similar  compilations,  and  the 
original  draft  of  Sir  John  Maundevile's  "  Travels  in  the 
Holy  Land."  Froissart's  famous  "  Chronicle  "  may, 
indeed,  almost  be  considered  as  belonging  to  us,  since 
it  treats  principally  of  English  feats  of  arms,  and  its 
author  held  a  post  in  the  court  of  Edward  III. 

In  Latin  poetry  there  is  nothing  that  deserves  men- 


22  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

tion  except  the  "  Liber  Metricus  "  of  Thomas  Elmham, 
concerning  the  career  of  Henry  V. ;  edited  by  Mr.  Cole, 
for  the  Rolls  Series,  in  1858.  Elmham,  who  flourished 
about  the  year  1440,  was  a  Benedictine  monk  in  the 
monastery  of  St.  Austin's,  Canterbury.  The  poem 
contains  1349  lines,  and  is,  as  Byron  would  have  said, 
not  so  much  poetry  as  "  prose  run  mad ; "  in  proof  of 
which,  let  these  lines  suffice  :  — 

"  Hie  Jon  Oldcastel  Christi  fuit  insidiator, 

Amplectens  haereses,  in  scelus  omne  ruens ; 
Fautor  perfidiae,  pro  sectd  Wicliviana, 
Obicibus  Regis  fert  mala  vota  sacris." 

Whether  the  last  line  means,  "  He  wishes  ill  to  the 
king's  devout  objects,"  or  any  thing  else,  it  is  hard  to 
say. 

In  Latin  prose,  we  have  a  version,  made  by  himself, 
of  "  Maundevile's  Travels,"  and  the  chroniclers 
(amongst  others  of  less  note)  Robert  de  Avesbury, 
Henry  Knyghton,  Thomas  Walsingham,  and  John 
Fordun.  Robert  de  Avesbury  was  registrar  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury's  Court,  and  wrote  a  fair 
and  accurate  history  of  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  (pub- 
lished by  Hearne  in  1720),  coming  down  to  the  year 
1356,  in  which,  or  in  the  following  year,  he  died. 
Henry  Knyghton,  the  date  of  whose  death  is  unknown, 
was  a  canon  regular  of  Leicester ;  he  is  the  author  of 
"  Compilatio  de  Eventibus  AngliaB  a  tempore  Regis 
Edgari  usque  ad  mortem  Regis  Ricardi  II."  His 
account  of  the  rise  of  Lollardism,  though  written  with 
a  strong  anti-Wycliffite  bias,  is  highly  interesting  and 
valuable. 

The  "  Historia  Anglicana  "  of  Thomas  Walsingham, 
a  work  to  which  all  modern  historians  continually  refer 
in  writing  of  the  events  of  the  fourteenth  and  earlier 


EAKLY  ENGLISH  PERIOD.  23 

portion  of  the  fifteenth  centuries,  was  edited  by  Mr. 
Riley  for  the  Rolls  Series  in  1864.  Scarcely  any  thing 
is  known  of  Walsingham,  except  that  he  was  a  monk 
of  St.  Albans ;  that  he  compiled,  besides  the  "  Historia," 
an  account  of  Normandy,  called  "  Ypodigma  Neustrise  ; " 
and  that  he  was  still  alive  in  1419.  The  "  Historia," 
as  it  stands,  extends  from  1272  to  1422  ;  but  Mr.  Riley 
shows  some  ground  for  supposing  that  the  portion 
compiled  by  Walsingham  himself  may  reach  no  further 
than  to  1392 ;  the  only  really  original  and  valuable  part 
even  of  this  being  the  fifteen  years  between  1377  and 
1392,  while  the  concluding  thirty  years  were  added  by 
some  unknown  hand. 

John  Fordun,  a  secular  priest  of  Kincardine  shire,  is 
the  author  of  the  "  Scotichronicon,"  a  history  of  Scot- 
land in  Latin  prose,  written  toward  the  close  of  the 
fourteenth  century.  The  entire  work  contains  sixteen 
books  ;  but  of  these  only  five  and  part  of  the  sixth 
were  composed  by  Fordun,  the  remainder  being  the 
work  of  Abbot  Bower,  who  brings  down  the  story  to 
the  death  of  James  I.  in  1437.1 

In  theology  and  philosophy  occurs  the  name  of  John 
Wyclif,  the  ablest  schoolman  of  his  day  in  England, 
admired  by  his  contemporaries  as  an  expert  logician  and 
prolific  system-monger,  long  before  he  wrote  those 
attacks  on  the  hierarchy,  the  mendicant  friars,  and  the 
received  doctrine  concerning  the  eucharist,  which 
gained  for  him  with  posterity  the  name  of  the  first 
English  reformer.  His  numerous  Latin  works,  very  few 
of  which  have  ever  been  printed,  are  classed  by  Dr. 
Shirley  in  his  excellent  "  Catalogue  of  the  Original 
Works  of  John  Wyclif,"  2  under  six  heads :  1.  Philoso- 
phy and  Systematic  Theology ;  2.  Sermons,  Expositions, 

1  Irving' s  History  of  Scottish  Poetry,  edited  by  Dr.  Carlyle,  p.  116. 

2  Clarendon  Press,  1865. 


24  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

and  Practical  Theology ;  3.  Protests,  Disputations,  and 
Epistles ;  4.  On  Church  Government  and  Endowments ; 
5.  On  the  Monastic  Orders;  6.  On  the  Secular  Clergy. 
Under  the  first  head  is  included  the  "  Suinma  Theolo- 
gise,"  a  body  of  divinity  of  stupendous  magnitude,  the 
substance  of  which  he  afterwards  reproduced  in  the 
"  Trialogus,  sive  Suinma  Summse,"  the  best  known  of 
all  his  works,  printed  at  Basle  by  the  Swiss  reformers  in 
1525.1  Two  or  three  of  his  shorter  Latin  tracts  are 
contained  in  the  "  Fasciculi  Zizaniorum,"  which,  in 
spite  of  its  enigmatical  title,  is  a  volume  of  remarkable 
interest,  in  respect  of  the  light  which  it  throws  on  the 
ecclesiastical  history  of  the  last  half  of  the  fourteenth 
century.  Here  are  described  in  detail  the  first  bicker- 
ings between  Wyclif  and  the  friars  his  opponents,  the 
synodical  proceedings  taken  by  the  bishops  against 
the  rising  heresy,  the  turbulent  sympathy  of  the  masters 
at  Oxford  with  the  accused,  and  the  steps  taken  by  the 
Government,  on  a  scale  of  ever-increasing  severity,  to 
enforce  submission  to  the  hierarchy.  Dr.  Shirley's  in- 
troduction to  the  volume,  which  was  edited  by  him  for 
the  Rolls  Series  in  1858,  explains  the  acts  and  tenden- 
cies of  Wyclif,  in  a  spirit  characterized  alike  by  pene- 
tration and  fairness. 

The  obvious  cause  of  the  decline  of  French  and  Latin 
composition  in  England  was  the  growing  prevalence, 
social  and  literary,  of  the  native  speech.  To  this  many 
circumstances  contributed.  The  gradual  consolidation 
of  nationalities,  which  had  long  been  making  steady 
progress  throughout  Europe,  had  been  constantly  draw- 
ing the  Norman  barons  and  the  English  commonalty 
closer  together,  and  separating  both  from  the  rival  na- 
tionality of  France.  Nor  had  the  nation  at  any  tima 

1  And  lately  carefully  edited  by  Dr.  Lechler  of  Leipsic,  for  tho 
Clarendon  Press,  1869. 


EARLY  ENGLISH  PERIOD.  25 

lost,  so  to  speak,  its  personal  identity  :  it  was  England 
for  which  the  Norman  Richard  fought  at  Acre ;  and 
even  William  of  Malmesbury,  writing  not  a  hundred 
years  after  the  Conquest,  speaks  of  that  event  rather  as 
a  change  of  dynasty  occurring  in  English  history,  than 
as  of  a  complete  social  revolution.  The  influence  of  the 
Church  must  have  pressed  powerfully  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. Though  the  Conqueror  filled  nearly  all  the  sees 
with  Normans,  it  was  not  long  before  native  English- 
men, through  that  noble  respect  for  and  recognition  of 
human  equality  which  were  —  theoretically  always,  and 
sometimes  practically  —  maintained  in  the  midst  of 
feudalism  by  the  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages,  obtained 
a  fair  proportion  of  them.  The  political  and  official 
power  of  bishops  in  those  days  was  great;  and  the 
native  tongue  of  an  English  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
could  not  even  by  the  proud  Norman  barons,  his  com- 
peers in  Parliament,  be  treated  with  disrespect.  Again  : 
since  1340,  England  and  France  had  been  constantly  at 
war ;  in  this  war  the  English-speaking  archers,  not  the 
French-speaking  barons,  had  won  the  chief  laurels ;  and 
the  tongue  of  a  humbled  beaten  enemy  was  likely  to  be 
less  attractive  to  the  mass  of  Englishmen  than  ever. 
The  well-known  law  of  Edward  III.,  passed  in  1362, 
directing  the  English  language  to  be  used  thencefor- 
ward in  judicial  pleadings,  was  merely  an  effect  of  the 
slow  but  resistless  operation  of  these  and  other  cognate 
causes.  Again  :  it  must  not  be  lost  sight  of,  that  a  sort 
of  tacit  compromise  passed  between  the  English  and 
French  speaking  portions  of  the  population :  the  former 
were  to  retain  the  entire  grammar  (so  much,  at  least 
as  was  left  of  it)  of  the  native  speech ;  all  the  conjunc- 
tions, prepositions,  and  pronouns  —  the  osseous  struc- 
ture, so  to  speak,  of  the  language  —  were  to  be  English ; 
while,  in  return,  the  Normans  were  to  be  at  liberty 
z 


26  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

to  import  French  nouns,  adjectives,  and  verbs  at  dis- 
cretion, without  troubling  themselves  to  hunt  for  the 
corresponding  terms  in  the  old  literary  Anglo-Saxon. 
Finally  this  English  language,  so  re-cast,  became  in  the 
fourteenth  century  the  chosen  instrument  of  thought 
and  expression  for  a  great  poet ;  and,  after  Chaucer,  no 
Englishman  could  feel  ashamed  of  his  native  tongue, 
nor  doubt  of  its  boundless  capabilities. 

Of  the  parentage  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer  nothing  is 
known  ;  but  we  have  his  own  word  for  it1  that  London 
was  the  place  of  his  birth.  The  year  seems  to  have 
been  1328,2  that  in  which  Edward  III.  married  Philippa 
of  Hainault.  Leland,  writing  in  the  time  of  Henry 
VIII.,  says  that  he  was  "  nobili  loco  natus  ;  "  but  he  gives 
no  authority  for  the  statement.  Godwin's  supposition, 
founded  upon  a  number  of  minute  allusions  scattered 
through  his  works,  that  his  father  was  a  merchant,  or 
burgess  of  London,  seems  to  be  much  more  probable. 

That  he  was  educated  at  a  university,  may  be  held  as 
certain ;  but,  whether  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  is  not  so 
clear.  There  is  a  passage  in  "  The  Court  of  Love,"  line 
912,— 

"  Philogenet  I  called  am  ferre  and  nere, 
Of  Cambridge  clerk;" 

which  seems  to  tell  in  favor  of  Cambridge.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  known  that  his  most  intimate  friends 
and  disciples,  Gower,  Strode,  and  Occleve,  were  Oxford 
men ;  and  the  earnest  scholar  who  makes  one  of  the 
group  of  Canterbury  pilgrims  is  a  "  clerk  of  Oxenford." 
In  1359  he  served  in  the  great  army  of  invasion  which 
Edward  III.  led  over  into  France.  In  the  course  of 

1  In  "  The  Testament  of  Love." 

2  This,  however,  is  merely  a  conjecture  of  Speght   (writing  in 
1597),  coupling  the  date    (1400)  on   the    tombstone  with    Leland's 
assertion  that  he  lived  to  the  "  period  of  gray  hairs." 


EARLY  ENGLISH  PERIOD.  27 

this  bootless  expedition  Chaucer  was  taken  prisoner, 
but  seems  to  have  been  released  at  the  peace  of  Bre- 
tigny,  in  1360.  His  marriage  with  Philippa  Rouet  is 
thought  to  have  taken  place  in  the  same  year.  This 
lady  was  a  native  of  Hainault,  and  maid  of  honor  to 
Queen  Philippa.  Her  sister  Catherine  was  the  third 
wife  of  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster.  These 
circumstances  readily  explain  Chaucer's  long  and  close 
connection  with  the  court,  commencing  with  the  year 
1367,  when  the  king  granted  him  a  pension  of  twenty 
marks  for  life,  under  the  designation  of  "  dilectus  valet- 
tus  noster"  His  prudence  and  practical  wisdom  seem 
to  have  been  as  conspicuous  as  his  more  brilliant  gifts, 
since  he  was  at  various  times  employed  by  the  king  on 
important  diplomatic  missions.  One  of  these  took  him 
to  Italy  in  1373,  in  which  year  he  is  thought  with  the 
highest  probability  to  have  become  acquainted  with 
Petrarch,  who  was  then  living  at  Arqua,  near  Padua. 
What  other  sense  can  be  attached  to  the  famous  pas- 
sage in  the  prologue  to  "  The  Clerk's  Tale  "  ?  — 

"  I  wil  you  telle  a  tale,  which  that  I 
Lerned  at  Padowe  of  a  worthy  clerk, 
As  proved  by  his  wordes  and  his  werk ; 
He  is  now  dead,  and  nayled  in  his  chest, 
Now  God  give  his  soule  wel  good  rest ! 
Fraunces  Petrark,  the  laureat  poete, 
Highte  this  clerk,  whose  rhetorike  swete 
Enlumynd  all  Ytail  of  poetrie, 
As  Linian  did  of  philosophic. " 

Petrarch  died  in  1374,  so  that  the  acquaintance  could 
not  have  been  formed  at  the  time  of  Chaucer's  second 
visit  to  Italy,  in  1378. 

In  1374  Chaucer  was  appointed  to  the  lucrative  office 
of  comptroller  of  the  customs  in  the  port  of  London. 
About  the  time  of  the  king's  death,  in  1377,  he  was 
employed  on  more  than  one  secret  and  delicate  mission, 


28  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

of  one  of  which  the  object  was  to  negotiate  the  mar- 
riage of  Richard  II.  with  a  French  princess.  The  new 
king  granted  him  a  second  pension  of  the  same  amount 
as  the  first.  In  1386  he  sat  as  a  burgess  for  the  county 
of  Kent  in  the  parliament  which  met  at  Westminster. 
John  of  Gaunt,  his  friend  and  patron,  was  at  this  time 
absent  upon  an  expedition  to  Portugal ;  and  the  Duke 
of  Gloucester,  another  of  the  king's  uncles,  a  man  of 
cruel  and  violent  character,  succeeded  in  this  parliament 
in  driving  the  king's  friends  out  of  office,  and  engross- 
ing all  political  power  in  the  hands  of  himself  and  his 
party.  In  November  of  the  same  year  a  commission 
was  appointed,  through  the  Duke's  influence,  armed 
with  general  and  highly  inquisitorial  powers,  extending 
over  the  royal  household  and  all  the  public  departments. 
In  December  we  find  that  Chaucer  was  dismissed  from 
his  office  as  comptroller.  It  is  evident  that  these  two 
circumstances  stand  to  each  other  in  the  relation  of 
cause  and  effect.  The  commission  may  perhaps  have 
seized  upon  the  pretext  of  some  official  irregularities 
(for  Chaucer  received  the  appointment  under  stringent 
conditions) ;  but  it  is  clear  that  he  suffered  in  common 
with  the  rest  of  the  king's  friends  and  favorites,  not  on 
account  of  his  "  connection  with  the  Duke  of  Lancas- 
ter," but  simply  as  a  courtier.1  This  view  of  the  mat- 
ter is  confirmed  by  the  fact,  that  in  1389,  in  which  year 
Richard  broke  loose  from  his  uncle's  tutelage,  and  dis- 
missed him  and  his  satellites,  we  find  that  Chaucer  was 
appointed  to  the  office  of  clerk  of  the  king's  works. 
In  the  interval  he  had  been  reduced  to  such  distress  as 
to  be  compelled  to  dispose  of  his  pensions.  From  some 
unascertained  cause  he  ceased  to  hold  this  new  situa- 
tion some  time  in  the  year  1391.  Three  years  after- 

1  Mr.  Bell,  in  the  Life  prefixed  to  his  excellent  edition  of  Chaucer, 
seeuis  to  have  misapprehended  this  transaction. 


EAELY  ENGLISH  PERIOD.  29 

wards  the  king  conferred  on  him  a  fresh  pension  of 
twenty  pounds  a  year  for  life,  to  which  Henry  IV.  in 
the  first  year  of  his  reign  (1399)  added  a  pension  of 
forty  marks.  Except  these  dry  facts,  we  have  abso- 
lutely no  certain  knowledge  respecting  the  last  ten  years 
of  Chaucer's  life  ;  but  it  is  satisfactory  to  reflect  that 
the  last  days  of  the  father  of  English  poetry  were 
at  least  spent  in  external  comfort,  and  free  from  the 
troubles  of  poverty. 

Thus  far  no  mention  has  been  made  of  Chaucer's 
writings,  the  composition  of  most  of  which  there  is  no 
means  of  accurately  assigning  to  this  or  that  year  of 
his  life.  These  must  now  be  considered,  but  historically 
only,  not  critically.1  All  that  will  be  attempted  here 
is,  after  enumerating  his  principal  works,  to  determine 
so  far  as  possible  their  approximate  dates,  to  describe 
the  various  literary  materials  which  he  had  at  his  dis- 
posal, and  to  show  the  different  degrees  in  which  the 
use  of  those  materials,  and  his  own  genius  as  devel- 
oped through  the  circumstances  which  surrounded  him, 
influenced  his  work. 

For  reasons  presently  to  be  mentioned,  we  have 
arranged  the  poet's  chief  works  in  the  following 
order  :  — 

"Vhe  Assembly  of  Foules  ^ 

The  Flower  and  the  Leaf  V  First  period. 

The  Court  of  Love  ) 

Chaucer's  Dreme  (about  1360) 

Boke  of  the  Duchesse'  (about  1370)          I  gecond       iod> 

Komaunt  of  the  Rose 

Fame  J 


Troylus  and  Creseide  \ 

The  Knight's  Tale  (and  perhaps  others  I  Third  period. 
of  the  Canterbury  Tales)  j 

1  For  some  critical  remarks  on  "  The  Canterbury  Tales,"  see  p,  379 
a* 


30  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Legende  of  Good  "Women 
The  Prologue,  and  many  of  the  Canter- 
bury Tales  J,  Fourth  period. 
The  Astrolabie  (1391) 
The  Testament  of  Love  l 

The  works  of  the  first  period  are  by  general  consent 
assigned  to  Chaucer's  youth.  It  is  usual  to  reckon  "  The 
Court  of  Love"  as  the  earliest  of  all,  and  to  assign  it  to 
his  eighteenth  year,  because  the  seventh  stanza  begins, 

"  When  I  was  yonge,  at  eighteen  yeres  of  age." 

But  the  direct  inference  from  these  words,  as  Mr.  Bell 
remarks,  is  that  the  poem  was  written  some  time  after 
the  poet's  eighteenth  year.  Mr.  Bell,  however,  con- 
siders the  modest,  self-depreciating  tone  in  which  the 
poem  opens,  as  conclusive  of  the  fact,  that  it  was  com- 
posed in  early  youth.  But  this  test  is  fallacious,  since 
similar  protestations  of  ignorance  and  unskilfulness  in 
his  art  are  of  constant  occurrence  all  through  Chau- 
cer's works.  They  occur,  for  instance,  in  "  The  Testa- 
ment of  Love,"  one  of  the  very  latest.2  On  the  other 
hand,  the  smoothness  of  the  versification,  the  perfect 
command  over  the  resources  of  the  language,  and  the 
finish  of  the  poem  generally,  seem  to  bespeak  the  mas- 
ter's rather  than  the  tyro's  hand.  A  passage  in  "  The 
Assembly  of  Foules,"  implying  that  the  poet  had  as 

1  Since  this  was  written,  the  genuineness  of  several  of  the  works 
in  the  list  given  above  has  been  discussed  or  denied  by  Mr.  Bradshaw, 
Professor  Ten  Brink,  Mr.  Furnivall,  and  others.     However,  it  is  a 
subject  which  has  been  stirred  but  not  yet  settled ;  the  dust  of  the 
controversy  has  not  subsided ;  adhuc  subjudice  Us  est.    I  prefer,  there- 
fore, while  admitting  the  inadequacy  and  possible  inaccuracy  of  much 
that  I  have  written  here,  to  defer  re- casting  it  to  a  future  oppor- 
tunity. 

2  '  Certes  I  wote  wel,  there  shall  be  made  more  scorne  and  jape  of 
me,  that  I,  so  unworthily  clothed  altoyither  in  the  cloudie  cloude  of  un- 
conniny,  will  putten  me  in  prees  to  speke  of  love.' 


EARLY  ENGLISH  PERIOD.  31 

yet  no  personal  experience  in  love,  is  a  more  unequivo- 
cal evidence  of  early  composition.1  For  this  reason  we 
have  placed  that  poem  the  first  on  the  list. 

The  link  of  connection  between  the  poems  of  the 
first  period  is  this :  that  they  all  betray  in  the  strongest 
manner  the  influence  of  the  ideas  and  language  of  the 
Provencal  poets.  This  influence  need  not,  as  Wai-ton 
remarks,  have  been  direct ;  it  may  have  come  to  Chau- 
cer, not  immediately  from  the  Troubadours,  but  medi- 
ately through  the  Trouveres ;  but  of  its  Provei^al 
origin  there  can  be  no  doubt.  It  was  in  Provence  that 
the  strange  practice  arose  among  the  poets,  of  parody- 
ing the  theologians  ;  for  the  sacred  names  of  religion, 
they  had  their  god  of  Love,  and  his  mother  Venus ;  for 
disputations  in  the  schools  upon  theological  theses, 
they  had  their  "  tensons  "  in  knightly  or  royal  halls 
upon  various  knotty  points  in  love  ;  and,  for  the  solemn 
tribunals  of  ecclesiastical  councils,  their  regularly  or- 
ganized "  Courts  of  Love,"  to  decide  the  debate  be- 
tween rival  troubadours.  All  these  characteristics  are 
copiously  illustrated  in  those  of  Chaucer's  works  which 
we  have  here  grouped  together. 

The  works  of  the  second  period  indicate  not  Pro- 
vengal,  but  Norman-French  influences.  They  are  all 
written  in  that  short  eight-syllable  metre  which  the 
Trouveres  usually  employed  for  their  romances  and 
fabliaux.  "  The  House  of  Fame,"  evidently  the  pro- 
duction of  Chaucer's  mature  age,  a  poem  showing 
much  thought  and  learning,  is  quite  in  the  style,  no  less 
than  in  the  metre,  of  the  fabliaux.  "  The  Romaunt 
of  the  Rose  "  is  a  translation  of  the  long  allegorical 

1  '  For  al  be  that  I  knowe  not  Love  in  dede, 

Ne  wot  how  that  he  quiteth  folk  hir  hire, 
Tet  happeth  me  ful  oft  in  bokes  rede 
Of  his  myracles,  and  of  his  cruel  ire.' 


32  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

poem  bearing  that  title,  begun  by  Guillaume  de  Lorris 
(died  1260),  and  continued  by  Jean  de  Meun.  Chau- 
cer translated  the  whole  of  Lorris's  portion,  extending 
to  more  than  four  thousand  lines,  and  about  three 
thousand  six  hundred  out  of  the  eighteen  thousand 
lines  which  form  Jean  de  Meun's  continuation. 

The  poems  classed  under  the  third  period  are  marked 
by  the  influence  of  Italian  literature.  "  Troylus  and 
Creseide  "  is  a  free  translation  from  the  "  Filostrato  "  of 
Boccaccio ;  "  The  Knight's  Tale  "  is  a  version  of  the 
same  author's  "  Theseide  ;  "  and  the  general  plan  of  the 
•*  Canterbury  Tales  "  was  clearly  suggested  by  that  of 
the  "  Decameron."  The  ten  friends  assembled,  during 
the  prevalence  of  the  plague,  in  a  country-house  out- 
side the  walls  of  Florence,  and  beguiling  the  tedium 
of  a  ten-days'  quarantine  by  each  telling  a  story  daily, 
are  represented  in  the  English  poem  by  the  thirty-two 
pilgrims  bound  to  the  shrine  of  St.  Thomas  at  Canter- 
bury, each  of  whom  (except  the  host)  binds  himself  to 
tell  a  story  for  the  amusement  of  the  company,  both 
going  and  returning.  Several  others  of  the  "  Canter- 
bury Tales,"  besides  "  The  Knight's  Tale,"  are  from 
Italian  sources.  The  clerk  says  expressly,  in  his  pro- 
logue, that  he  learned  the  tale  of  Grisilde  from 
Petrarch,  who  made  in  1373  a  Latin  translation  of  the 
original  story,  as  it  stands  in  the  "  Decameron." 

In  the  works  of  the  fourth  period,  though  extrane- 
ous influences  may  of  course  be  detected,  Chaucer's 
original  genius  is  predominant.  The  "  Legende  of 
Good  Women  "  was  written  to  make  amends  for  the 
many  disparaging  reflections  which  Chaucer  had  cast 
in  former  works  on  woman's  truth  and  constancy  in 
love.  Alcestis,  the  self-sacrificing  wife  of  Admetus, 
whom  in  "  The  Court  of  Love  "  he  names  as  queen  and 
mistress  under  Venus  in  the  castle  of  Love,  imposes 
the  following  task  upon  her  poet :  — 


EARLY   ENGLISH   PERIOD.  33 

"  Now  wol  I  seyne  what  penance  thou  shalt  do 
For  thy  trespas,  understoncle  yt  here :  — 
Thow  shalt  while  that  thou  livest,  yere  by  yere, 
The  most  partye  of  thy  time  speude 
In  making  of  a  glorious  legende 
Of  good  wymmen,  maydenes,  and  wyves, 
That  weren  trewe  in  loving  all  hire  lyves. 

The  late  date  of  the  composition  of  the  poem  is 
ascertained  by  the  mention  in  it  of  most  of  his  princi- 
pal works :  — 

"  Thou  hast  translated  the  Romaunce  of  the  Rose, 
That  is  an  heresye  ayeins  my  law." 

And,  — 

"  And  of  Cresyde  thou  hast  seyde  as  the  lyste." 
Again,  — 

"  He  made  the  boke  that  hight  the  Hous  of  Fame, 
And  eke  the  death  of  Blaunche  the  Duchesse, 
And  the  Parlement  of  Foules,  as  I  gesse, 
And  al  the  Love  of  Palamon  and  Arcite 
Of  Thebes,  thogh  the  story  is  knowen  lyte." 

uThe  Love  of  Palamon  and  Arcyte"  is  "The 
Knight's  Tale,'*  the  first  and  longest  of  the  series. 
The  mention  of  this  as  a  separate  work  confirms  the 
opinion  that  many  of  the  "  Canterbury  Tales  "  were 
in  circulation  independently,  before  they  were  brought 
together  and  fitted  into  the  general  framework  of  the 
poem. 

The  prologue  to  the  Tales  was  probably  the  latest 
or  nearly  the  latest  part  of  the  work.  It  consists  of 
sketches,  drawn  with  a  spirit,  life,  and  humor  inex- 
pressible, of  the  thirty-two  Canterbury  pilgrims.  The 
"  Astrolabie  "  is  a  treatise  on  astronomy,  composed  in 
1391,  for  the  use  of  Chaucer's  second  son,  Louis.  It 
opens  thus :  "  Lytel  Lowys  my  sonne,  I  perceive  well 


34  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

by  certain  evidences  thyne  abylyte  to  lerne  sciences 
touching  nombres  and  proporcions."  "  Lytel  Lowys  " 
was  at  the  time  ten  years  old.  "  The  Testament  of 
Love  "  will  be  considered  when  we  come  to  speak  of 
the  prose  writings  of  the  period.  It  is  probably  impos- 
sible to  fix  with  exactness  the  date  of  its  composition. 
He  mentions  in  it,  that  he  has  been  "  berafte  out  of 
dignity  of  office  ;"  words  which  might  apply  either  to 
his  dismissal  from  the  office  of  comptroller  of  customs 
in  1386,  or  to  his  losing  the  appointment  of  clerk  of 
the  king's  works  in  1391. 

"  The  Canterbury  Tales,"  therefore,  as  a  whole, 
belong  to  the  last  period  of  Chaucer's  life,  when  his 
judgment  and  insight  into  character,  developed  by  a 
long  and  wisely-used  experience,  were  at  their  height, 
while  his  imagination  gave  no  sign  of  growing  dim) 
The  machinery  of  the  poem  has  been  already  in  part 
explained.  Of  the  thirty-two  persons  forming  the 
company  of  pilgrims,  one,  the  host  of  the  Tabard,  the 
inn  in  Southwark  from  which  they  start,  is  the  guide 
and  chief  of  the  expedition.  He  is  to  tell  no  tale 
himself,  but  to  be  the  judge  of  those  which  the  other 
pilgrims  tell.  If  the  scheme  announced  in  the  prologue 
(that  each  pilgrim  should  tell  two  tales  going,  and  two 
returning)  had  been  fully  executed,  we  should  thus 
have  a  hundred  and  twenty-four  tales.  In  fact,  there 
are  but  twenty-four,  two  of  which  are  told  by  Chaucer, 
and  a  third  by  the  Chanounes  Yeoman,  who  is  not  one 
of  the  original  party,  but,  with  his  master,  joins  the 
pilgrims  on  the  road.  This  incompleteness  is  in  marked 
contrast  to  the  symmetrical  exactness  with  which  tho 
less  ambitious  plan  of  the  "  Decameron "  is  worked 
out. 

Chaucer  was  the  centre  of  a  group  of  literary  men,  of 
Avhom  he  was  the  friend  or  master ;  who  admired  anc( 


EARLY  ENGLISH  PERIOD.  35 

loved  him,  and  in  most  cases  strove  to  imitate  him, 
though  with  very  indifferent  success.  Of  these,  John 
Gower,  the  "  ancient  Gower  "  of  Shakspeare,  was  the 
chief.  Scarcely  any  thing  is  known  about  him,  except 
that  he  graduated  at  Oxford,  and  was  rich.  He  wrote 
many  French  poems,  evidently  conceiving  that  by  so 
doing  he  found  a  larger  audience  than  by  writing  in 
English.  At  the  end  of  one  of  these,  he  says,  — 

"  A  Vuniversite  de  tout  le  monde 
Johan  Gower  ceste  balade  envoie." 

His  principal  production  was  a  work  in  three  parts, 
respectively  entitled  "  Speculum  Meditantis,"  "  Vox 
Clamantis,"  and  "  Confessio  Amantis."  The  "  Specu- 
lum "  is  in  French  rhymes,  in  ten  books;  it  was  never 
printed,  nor  is  a  manuscript  of  it  known  to  exist.  The 
poem,  according  to  Warton,  "  displays  the  general 
nature  of  virtue  and  vice,  enumerates  the  felicities  of 
conjugal  fidelity  by  examples  selected  from  various 
authors,  and  describes  the  path  which  the  reprobate 
ought  to  pursue  for  the  recovery  of  the  divine  grace." 1 
The  "  Vox  Clamantis,"  a  poem  in  Latin  elegiacs,  in 
seven  books,  edited  by  Mr.  Coxe  of  the  Bodleian  Li- 
brary, in  1850,  for  the  Roxburgh  Society,  is  in  substance 
a  history  of  the  insurrection  of  the  Commons,  under 
Wat  Tyler,  in  the  reign  of  Richard  II.  The  "  Confessio 
Amantis,"  an  English  poem  in  eight  books,  written  in 
the  short  romance  metre  of  eight  syllables,  was  finished 
in  1393.  It  has  been  frequently  printed.  Imitating 
the  fantastic  and  exaggerated  language  of  the  Trou- 
badours, Gower  presents  us  in  this  poem  with  a  long 
colloquy  between  a  lover  and  his  confessor,  who  is  a 

1  According  to  Mr.  Ellis  (note  in  Warton,  vol.  ii.  p.  306,  ed.  1824), 
this  description  is  really  applicable  to  one  of  Gower's  shorter  poems, 
which  Warton  mistook  for  "  The  Speculum." 


36  HISTOEY   OF  ENGLISH  LITEEATUEE. 

priest  of  Venus  :  the  lover  confessing,  under  the  several 
heads  of  the  seven  deadly  sins,  the  respects  in  which 
he  has  offended  against  Love  ;  and  the  priest  giving  him 
instructions  in  the  duties  of  a  lover,  under  the  guise, 
generally,  of  relevant  anecdotes,  collected  from  his 
multifarious  reading.  The  Provengal  poets  had  intro- 
duced this  fashion  of  deifying  Love,  and  painting  him 
as  the  sovereign  ruler  over  human  life  and  destiny.  A 
considerable  portion  of  the  poem  consists  of  learned 
disquisitions  upon  politics,  astrology,  and  physiology, 
stuffed  with  all  the  crude  absurdities  which  suited  the 
coarse  palate  of  that  age.  The  materials  of  the  tales 
are  gathered  from  various  sources,  but  chiefly  from  the 
"  Gesta  Romanorum,"  and  other  vast  compilations, 
which,  under  the  name  of  "  Universal  Histories,"  in 
which  the  smallest  modicum  of  fact  was  diluted  in  an 
incredible  quantity  of  fiction,  amused  and  edified  the 
naive  credulity  of  the  Middle  Age. 

If  chronological  order  had  been  strictly  followed, 
William  Langland,  the  author  of  "  The  Vision  of  Piers 
Plowman,"  should  have  been  mentioned  before  Gower, 
if  not  before  Chaucer.  The  poem  is  allegorical,  and, 
like  many  of  Chaucer's,  describes  a  vision  seen  in  a 
dream.  It  extends  to  about  fourteen  thousand  short, 
or  seven  thousand  long  lines,  of  two  or  four  accents. 
It  is  written  throughout  with  a  didactic  purpose,  which 
often  appears  in  the  form  of  special  satire  on  partic- 
ular classes  or  professions.  Abuses  in  religion,  and  the 
malpractices  of  ecclesiastics,  form,  as  might  be  expected, 
the  chief  mark  for  this  satire.  A  crowd  of  allegorical 
personages,  representing  different  types  of  human  char- 
acter, after  being  brought  to  repentance  by  the  preach- 
ing of  Reason,  earnestly  desire  to  find  out  the  way  to 
the  abode  of  Truth.  Their  authorized  spiritual  guides 
do  not  know  the  road  ;  and  it  is  Piers  the  plough- 


EARLY  ENGLISH  PEKIOD.  37 

man  from  whom  they  at  last  obtain  the  guidance 
which  they  require.  The  metre  is  alliterative,  like 
that  of  the  old  Saxon  poets.  The  writer  seems  to 
address  himself  to  a  class  socially  inferior  to  that  which 
Chaucer  and  Gower  sought  to  please,  —  a  class,  there- 
fore, almost  purely  Saxon,  and  likely  to  receive  with 
pleasure  a  work  composed  in  the  old  rhythm  dear  to 
their  forefathers.  The  Vision  is  determined  by  internal 
allusions  to  about  the  year  1362.  "  Piers  Plowman's 
Crede,"  a  poem  in  the  same  metre,  consisting  of  sixteen 
hundred  and  ninety-seven  short  lines,  was  composed 
after  Wyclifs  death  (1384)  by  one  of  his  followers. 
In  reading  it  one  is  strongly  reminded  of  the  Puritan 
writers  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

Thomas  Occleve,  a  clerk  in  the  Exchequer,  flourished  about  the 
year  1410.  His  chief  work  is  a  version,  in  the  seven-line  stanza  first 
employed  by  Chaucer,  of  the  work  of  "  ./Egidius  De  Regimine  Prin- 
cipum;"  but  far  more  interesting  than  the  version  itself  is  the  long 
prologue  prefixed  to  it,  in  which  the  poet  tells  us  much  about  his 
own  life  and  its  troubles,  and  sings  the  praise  of  his  great  master 
Chaucer.  The  author  describes  his  meeting  with  a  poor  old  man, 
with  whom  he  falls  into  conversation,  and  to  whom  at  last  he  opens 
his  griefs.  After  suggesting  various  causes  for  his  despondency,  the 
old  man  says,  prettily :  — 

"  If  thou  fele  the  in  any  of  thise  y-greved, 
Or  ellis  what,  tel  on  in  Goddis  name, 
Thou  seest,  al  day  the  begger  is  releved, 
That  syt  and  beggith,  crokyd,  blynd,  and  lame ; 
And  whi  ?  for  he  ne  lettith  for  no  shame 
His  harmes  and  his  povert  to  bewreye 
To  folke,  as  thei  goon  bi  hym  bi  the  weye. 

After  a  long  dialogue,  the  old  man  suggests  that  Occleve  should  write 
some  poem,  and  send  it  to  Prince  Harry ;  to  which  the  poet  assents, 
while  lamenting  that  his  great  counsellor  is  dead :  — 

But  wel  away !  so  is  mine  herte  wo 

That  the  honour  of  English  tonge  is  dede, 

Of  which  I  wont  was  han  counsel  and  rede ! 


00  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

O  mayster  dere,  and  fadir  reverent, 

My  mayster  Chaucer,  floure  of  eloquence, 

Mirrour  of  fructuous  entendement, 

O  universal  fadir  in  science, 

Alas  that  thou  thine  excellent  prudence 

In  thy  bed  raortel  mightest  not  bequethe ! 

What  eyled  Death  ?    Alas !  why  would  he  sle  the  ? 

John  Lydgate,  a  Benedictine  monk  of  Bury  St.  Ed- 
munds, who  flourished  about  1425,  was  also  an  admirer 
and  imitator  of  Chaucer.  He  was,  as  a  writer,  less 
gifted  than  voluminous ;  Ritson,  in  his  "  Bibliographia 
Poetica,"  has  enumerated  two  hundred  and  fifty-one  of 
his  productions  ;  and  this  list  is  known  to  be  incom- 
plete. No  writer  was  ever  more  popular  in  his  own 
day  ;  but  it  was  a  popularity  which  could  not  last.  His 
versification  is  rough  and  inharmonious,  as  unlike  as 
possible  to  the  musical  movement  of  Chaucer ;  his 
stories  are  prolix  and  dull,  and  his  wit  seldom  very 
pointed.  Instead  of,  like  Chaucer,  filling  his  ear,  and 
feeding  his  imagination  with  the  poetry  of  Italy,  the 
only  country  where  literature  had  as  yet  emerged  from 
barbarism,  and  assumed  forms  comparable  to  those  of 
antiquity,  Lydgate's  attention  seems  to  have  been 
engrossed  partly  by  the  inane  Latin  literature  1  of  the 
period,  partly  by  the  works  of  the  romance- writers  and 
Trouveres,  whose  French  was  at  that  time  a  barbarous 
dialect,  and  whose  rhythm  was  nearly  as  bad  as  his 
own.  A  selection  from  his  minor  poems  was  edited  by 
Mr.  Halliwell  for  the  Percy  Society  in  1840.  His 
longer  works  are,  "  The  Storie  of  Thebes,"  translated 
from  Statius  ;  "  The  Falls  of  Princes  "  (translated  from 
a  French  paraphrase  of  Boccaccio's  work  "  De  Casi- 
bus  ")  ;  and  "  The  History  of  the  Siege  of  Troy."  This 
last,  a  free  version  of  Guido  Colonna's  Latin  prose 

1  This  expression  refers  to  the  miscellaneous  literature,  not,  of 
course,  to  the  theological  or  philosophical  works  written  in  Latin. 


EARLY  ENGLISH  PERIOD.  39 

history,  was  undertaken  at  the  command  of  Henry  V. 
in  1412,  and  finished  in  1420.  "  The  Falls  of  Princes  " 
are  described  by  himself  as  a  series  of  "  Tragedies." 
All  these  three  works  are  in  the  heroic  rhyming 
measure. 

Lydgate  also  translated  from  the  French  "  The  Daunce  of  Ma- 
chabre,"  or  "  Dance  of  Death,"  in  a  curious  octave  stanza,  of  which 
the  following  is  a  specimen :  — 

"  Owt  of  the  Ffranche  I  drew  it  of  entent 

Not  word  by  word,  but  following  the  substance, 
And  fro  Parys  to  Englonde  it  sente, 

Only  of  purposs  yow  to  do  plesaunce ; 
Rude  of  langage,  —  I  was  not  borne  in  Ff raunce  — 

Have  me  excused ;  my  name  is  John  Lidgate, 
Off  here  tunge  I  have  no  suffisaunce 

Her  corious  metres  in  Eriglisshe  to  translate." 

In  this  poem  Death  accosts  first  the  pope,  then  the  emperor,  then 
the  representatives  of  every  earthly  profession  and  calling  in  succes- 
sion. Each  of  these  replies  in  his  turn ;  and  all,  with  more  or  less  of 
moralizing,  own  the  levelling  hand  and  irresistible  might  of  Death. 
A  poem  called  "Chichevache  and  Bycorne"  has  also  been  ascribed  to 
him;  he  is  the  author,  moreover,  of  a  didactic  poem  in  octosyllabics, 
of  immense  length,  and  never  printed,  to  which  a  commentator  of  the 
sixteenth  century  has  given  the  title  "  Reson  and  Sensuallyte ; "  its 
subject  is  the  rivalry  between  reason  and  sense. 

Among  the  minor  poets  of  this  period,  there  is  none 
so  well  deserving  of  notice  as  Lawrence  Minot,  whose 
poems  were  accidentally  discovered  by  Mr.  Tyrrhwitt 
among  the  Cottonian  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum,  near 
the  close  of  the  last  century.  They  celebrate  the  mar- 
tial exploits  of  Edward  III.,  from  the  battle  of  Halidon 
Hill  in  1333,  to  the  taking  of  Guisnes  Castle  in  1352, 
and  would  seem  to  have  been  composed  contemporane- 
ously with  the  events  described.  They  are  in  the  same 
stanza  of  six  short  lines,  common  among  the  romancers, 
in  which  Chaucer's  "  Rime  of  Sir  Thopas  "  is  written. 
Nothing  is  known  of  Minot's  personal  history. 


40  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Scottish  Poets  :  Barbour,  James  I.,  Wynton. 
John  Barbour,  Archdeacon  of  Aberdeen,  is  the  author 
of  an  heroic  poem  entitled  "  The  Bruce,"  1  containing 
the  history  of  Robert  Bruce,  the  victor  of  Bannock- 
burn,  and  of  Scotland,  so  far  as  that  was  influenced  by 
him.  The  poem  is  believed  to  have  been  completed  in 
the  year  1375.  It  is  in  the  eight-syllable  rhyming  meas- 
ure, and  consists  of  between  twelve  and  thirteen  thou- 
sand lines.  James  I.  of  Scotland,  who  received  his 
education  while  retained  as  a  captive  in  England  be- 
tween the  years  1405  and  1420,  wrote  his  principal 
work,  "  The  King's  Quhair  "  (i.e.,  quire,  or  book),  in 
praise  of  the  lady  who  had  won  his  heart,  and  whom  he 
afterwards  married,  —  the  Lady  Jane  Beaufort,  daughter 
of  the  Duke  of  Somerset.  This  poem,  which  is  in  a 
hundred  and  ninety-seven  stanzas,  divided  into  six 
cantos,  contains  much  interesting  matter  of  the  autobio- 
graphical sort.  Andrew  Wynton,  author  of  "  The  Ori- 
ginale  Crony kil,"  was  a  canon  of  St.  Andrew's,  and 
prior  of  St.  Serfs,  the  monastery  on  the  island  in  Loch 
Leven.  His  "  Crony  kil  "  begins,  as  was  then  thought 
decorous  and  fitting,  with  the  creation,  plunges  into 
the  history  of  the  angels,  discusses  general  geography, 
and  at  the  end  of  five  books  filled  with  this  "  panto- 
graphical  "  rubbish,  as  Dr.  Irving  amusingly  calls  it, 
settles  down  upon  its  proper  subject,  which  is,  the 
history  of  Scotland  from  the  earliest  ages  down  to  his 
own  time.  He  died  about  the  year  1420.  He  incorpo- 
rates freely  the  work  of  preceding  writers, —  three  hun- 
dred lines  from  Barbour,  and  no  less  than  thirty-six 
chapters  by  some  versifier  whose  name,  he  says,  he  has 
not  been  able  to  discover.  His  verse  is,  like  Barbour's, 
octosyllabic ;  it  is  naive,  sense-full,  and,  in  parts,  touch- 


ing.2 


1  Irving's  History  of  Scottish  Poetry. 

2  SPA  r^r'it.ipnl  Sppfirm     nil     i      TTprnip   " 


EARLY  ENGLISH  PERIOD.  41 

Prose  Writers :  Maundevile,  Chaucer,  Wyclif. 

The  earliest  known  work  in  English  prose  of  a  secu- 
lar character,  "  The  Travels  of  Sir  John  Maundevile," 
dates  from  this  period.  As  before  mentioned,  the  book 
had  been  originally  written  in  French,  and  afterwards 
translated  into  Latin.  It  was  probably  about  the  year 
1360  that  Sir  John  prepared  and  published  an  English 
version,  also  for  the  benefit  of  his  own  country  men. 
This  is  a  proof  that  about  this  time  the  knowledge  of 
French,  even  among  the  educated  classes,  was  ceasing 
to  be  essential  or  universal. 

The  author  professes  not  only  to  have  traversed  the 
Holy  Land  in  several  directions,  but  to  have  visited 
many  countries  farther  east,  including  even  India  ;  but, 
when  we  come  to  the  chapters  which  treat  of  these 
countries,  we  find  them  filled  with  preposterous  stories, 
which  Maundevile,  whose  capacity  of  swallowing  was 
unlimited,  must  have  derived  either  from  hearsay  or 
from  the  works  of  travellers  equally  gullible  with  him- 
self. When  one  reflects  that  Maundevile  had  as  great 
opportunities  as  Herodotus,  and  then  observes  the  use 
that  he  made  of  them,  comparisons  are  forced  on  the 
mind  not  over-favorable  to  the  English  and  mediaeval, 
as  contrasted  with  the  Greek  and  classical,  grade  of 
intelligence.  Our  author  tells  of  the  "  Land  of  Ama- 
zoym,"  an  island  inhabited  only  by  a  race  of  warlike 
women ;  of  rocks  of  adamant  in  the  Indian  seas,  which 
draw  to  them  with  irresistible  force  any  ships  sailing 
past  that  have  any  iron  bolts  or  nails  in  them ;  of  a 
tribe  of  people  with  hoofs  like  horses  ;  of  people  with 
eight  toes  ;  of  dwarfs  ;  and  of  a  one-legged  race,  whose 
one  foot  was  so  large  that  they  used  it  to  shade  them- 
selves from  the  sun  with.  The  language,  as  used  by 
Maundevile,  appears  almost  precisely  similar  to  that  of 
Chaucer  in  his  prose  works.  As  a  physician,  Maunde- 


42  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

vile  belonged  to  a  class  of  men  not  usually  addicted  to 
superstition,  or  overburdened  with  religious  venera- 
tion ;  a  trait  which  Chaucer,  with  his  profound  knowl- 
edge of  mankind,  hits  off  in  his  account  of  the  "  Doc- 
tor of  Phisike:  "  — 

"His  studie  was  but  litel  on  the  Bible." 

But  the  superstitious  credulity  of  Maundevile  is  un- 
bounded ;  nor  did  it  tend  to  make  his  work  unpopular. 
On  the  contrary,  there  is  scarcely  any  old  English  book 
of  which  the  manuscript  copies  are  so  numerous ;  and 
it  is  certain  that  it  was  held  in  high  estimation  all 
through  the  fifteenth  century,  —  down,  in  fact,  to  the 
time  when,  foreign  travel  having  become  more  common, 
the  existence  of  the  eight-toed  men,  &c.,  began  to  be 
doubted. 

Chaucer's  prose  works  consist  of  two  of  the  "  Canter- 
bury Tales,"  —  "  The  Tale  of  Melibseus,"  and  "  The 
Parson's  Tale," — a  translation  of  Boethius'  "  De  Con- 
solatione  Philosophise,"  the  "  Astrolabie,"  and  "  The 
Testament  of  Love."  "The  Tale  of  Melibams,"  the 
design  of  which  is  to  enforce  the  duty  of  forgiveness  of 
injuries,  is  one  of  those  which  are  supposed  to  be  told 
by  the  poet  himself.  "  The  Parson's  Tale  "  is  a  treatise 
on  the  sacrament  of  penance.  Both  of  these  are  written 
in  fluent,  intelligible  English,  and  present  few  other 
difficulties  to  the  reader  but  those  which  the  old  or- 
thography occasions.  In  translating  Boethius,  Chaucer 
was  renewing  for  the  men  of  his  own  day  the  service 
rendered  by  Alfred  to  Ins  West  Saxon  countrymen. 
"  The  Testament  of  Love  "  is  divided  into  three  parts. 
It  professes  to  be  an  imitation  of  the  work  of  Boethius. 
In  the  first  part,  Love  bequeathes  instructions  to  her 
followers,  whereby  they  may  rightly  judge  of  the  causes 
of  cross  fortune,  &c.  In  the  second,  "  she  teacheth  the 


EARLY   ENGLISH   PERIOD.  43 

knowledge  of  one  very  God,  our  Creator ;  as  also  the 
state  of  grace,  and  the  state  of  glory."  Throughout 
these  two  parts  are  scattered  allusions,  or  what  seem  to 
be  such,  to  the  circumstances  under  which  Chaucer  lost 
his  official  employment,  and  was  reduced  to  poverty. 
The  third  part  is  a  remarkable  discourse  on  necessity 
and  free  will,  in  which  the  doctrine  laid  down  by  St. 
Augustine,  and  expounded  by  the  schoolmen,  is  elo- 
quently set  forth.  Of  the  "  Astrolabie  "  we  have  already 
spoken  (see  p.  33). 

Among  Wyclifs  English  writings,  his  translation  of 
the  Bible  must  be  first  considered.  The  subject  is 
surrounded  with  difficulties,  and  cannot  be  fully  dis- 
cussed here.  A  fine  edition  of  the  "  Wycliffite  versions 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures  "  was  issued  in  1850,  under  the 
care  of  the  Rev.  J.  Forshall  and  Sir  F.  Madden,  from 
the  Oxford  University  Press.  In  the  preface  to  this 
work,  the  following  passage  occurs,  and  represents  pro- 
bably the  real  state  of  the  case  :  — 

"  Down  to  the  year  1360,  the  Psalter  appears  to  be 
the  only  book  of  Scripture  which  had  been  entirely  ren- 
dered into  English.  Within  less  than  twenty-five  years 
from  this  date,  a  prose  version  of  the  whole  Bible,  in- 
cluding as  well  the  apocryphal  as  the  canonical  books, 
had  been  completed,  and  was  in  circulation  among  the 
people.  For  this  invaluable  gift  England  is  indebted  to 
John  Wyclif.  It  may  be  impossible  to  determine  with 
certainty  the  exact  share  which  his  own  pen  had  in  the 
translation ;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  took  a 
part  in  the  labor  of  producing  it,  and  that  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  work  must  be  attributed  mainly  to  his 
zeal,  encouragement,  and  direction." 

The  version  here  referred  to  is  the  older  of  the  two 


44  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

versions  printed  by  Forshall  and  Madden.  The  later 
one  appeared  some  years  after  Wyclif  s  death,  being 
thought  necessary  by  his  Lollard  followers  on  account 
of  the  inequality  existing  between  different  parts  of  the 
original  work.  However,  the  general  agreement  be- 
tween the  two  versions  is  very  close. 

The  other  English  writings  of  Wyclif  consist  of  sermons,  exegeti- 
cal  treatises,  controversial  treatises,  and  letters.  A  selection  of 
these,  edited  by  the  present  author,  was  published  for  the  Clarendon 
Press  in  1871.1  The  sermons,  which  are  very  short,  are  based  upon 
the  Gospels  and  Epistles  read  in  the  church  service.  The  explanations 
of  the  New  Testament  parables  are  often  racy  and  original  ;  many 
curious  traditional  interpretations  are  given;  and  now  and  then, 
though  it  is  but  seldom,  the  tone  rises  to  real  eloquence.  In  the  case 
of  the  other  writings,  interesting  as  many  of  them  are,  there  is  unfor- 
tunately much  difficulty  in  distinguishing  between  those  which  are 
genuine  and  those  which  are  more  or  less  doubtful.  The  controver- 
sial tracts  are  directed  chiefly  against  the  four  orders  of  friars,  whose 
monasteries  Wyclif  called  "  Caym's  (i.e.,  Cain's)  castles."  In  a  minor 
degree  they  assail  the  pope,  the  monks,  and  the  higher  orders 
of  the  secular  clergy.  Of  one  of  the  exegetical  tracts,  "  On  the  Pater- 
noster," a  portion  of  the  striking  peroration  is  here  subjoined :  — 

"  Whanne  a  man  seith,  My  God,  delyvere  me  fro  myn  enemyes, 
what  othir  thing  seith  he  than  this,  Delyvere  us  from  yvel?  And  if 
thou  rennest  aboute  bi  alle  the  wordis  of  holy  praieris,  thou  schalt 
fynde  nothing  whiche  is  not  conteyned  in  this  praier  of  the  Lord. 
Whoevere  seith  a  thing  that  may  not  perteyne  to  this  praier  of  the 
Gospel,  he  praieth  bodili  and  unjustli  and  unleeffulli,  as  me  thenkith. 
Whanne  a  man  saieth  in  his  praier,  Lord,  multiplie  myn  richessis, 
and  encreese  myn  honouris,  and  seith  this,  havynge  the  coveitise  of 
hem,  and  not  purposynge  the  profit  of  hem  to  men,  to  be  bettir  to 
Godward,  I  gesse  that  he  may  not  fynde  it  in  the  Lordis  praier. 
Therfore  be  it  schame  to  aske  the  thingis  whiche  it  is  not  leefful  to 
coveyte.  If  a  man  schameth  not  of  this,  but  coveytise  overcometh 
him,  this  is  askid,  that  he  delyvere  fro  this  yvel  of  coveytise,  to  whom 
we  seyn,  Delyvere  us  from  yvel." 

i  Select  English  Works  of  John  Wyclif.    Oxford,  1871. 


BEVIVAL  OF  LEARNING.  45 


CHAPTER  III. 
REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING. 

1450-1558. 

M.  SISMONDI,  in  his  admirable  work  on  the  Litera- 
ture of  the  South  of  Europe,  has  a  passage,1  explaining 
the  decline  of  Italian  literature  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
which  is  so  strictly  applicable  to  the  corresponding 
decline  of  English  literature  for  a  hundred  and  seventy 
years  after  Chaucer,  that  we  cannot  forbear  quoting 
it:  — 

"  The  century  which,  after  the  death  of  Petrarch, 
had  been  devoted  by  the  Italians  to  the  study  of  an- 
tiquity, during  which  literature  experienced  no  advance, 
and  the  Italian  language  seemed  to  retrograde,  was  not, 
however,  lost  to  the  powers  of  imagination.  Poetry, 
on  its  first  revival,  had  not  received  sufficient  nourish- 
ment. The  fund  of  knowledge,  of  ideas,  and  of 
images,  which  she  called  to  her  aid,  was  too  restricted. 
The  three  great  men  of  the  fourteenth  century,  whom 
we  first  presented  to  the  attention  of  the  reader,  had, 
by  the  sole  force  of  their  genius,  attained  a  degree  of 
erudition,  and  a  sublimity  of  thought,  far  beyond  the 
spirit  of  their  age.  These  qualities  were  entirely  per- 
sonal ;  and  the  rest  of  the  Italian  bards,  like  the  Pro- 
venc,al  poets,  were  reduced,  by  the  poverty  of  their 

i  Vol.  ii.  p.  400  (Roscoe). 


46  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

ideas,  to  have  recourse  to  those  continual  attempts  at 
wit,  and  to  that  mixture  of  unintelligible  ideas  and 
incoherent  images,  which  render  the  perusal  of  them  so 
fatiguing.  The  whole  of  the  fifteenth  century  was  em- 
ployed in  extending  in  every  direction  the  knowledge 
and  resources  of  the  friends  of  the  Muses.  Antiquity 
was  unveiled  to  them  in  all  its  elevated  characters,  —  its 
severe  laws,  its  energetic  virtue,  and  its  beautiful  and 
engaging  mythology ;  in  its  subtle  and  profound  phil- 
osophy, its  overpowering  eloquence,  and  its  delightful 
poetry.  Another  age  was  required  to  knead  afresh  the 
clay  for  the  formation  of  a  nobler  race.  At  the  close 
of  the  century,  a  divine  breath  animated  the  finished 
statue,  and  it  started  into  life." 

Mutatis  mutandis,  those  eloquent  sentences  are  ex- 
actly applicable  to  the  case  of  English  literature. 
Chaucer's  eminence  was  purely  personal;  even  more 
so,  perhaps,  than  that  of  the  great  Italians.  For  the 
countrymen  of  Dante,  Petrarch,  and  Boccaccio  at  least 
possessed  a  settled  and  beautiful  language,  adapted 
already  to  nearly  all  literary  purposes ;  while  the 
tongue  of  Chaucer  was  in  so  rude  and  unformed  a 
condition  that  only  transcendent  genius  could  make  a 
work  expressed  through  it  endurable.  The  fifteenth 
century  seems  to  have  been  an  age  of  active  preparation 
in  every  country  of  Europe.  Though  no  great  books 
were  produced  in  it,  it  witnessed  the  invention  of  the 
art  of  printing,  the  effect  of  which  was  so  to  multiply 
copies  of  the  masterpieces  of  Greek  and  Roman  genius, 
to  reduce  their  price,  and  to  enlarge  the  circle  of  their 
readers,  as  to  supply  abundantly  new  materials  for 
thought,  and  new  models  of  artistic  form,  and  thus 
pave  the  way  for  the  great  writers  of  the  close  of  the 
next  century.  Printing,  invented  at  Metz  by  Guten- 


EEVTVAL   OF   LEAENING.  47 

berg  about  the  year  1450,  was  introduced  into  England 
by  William  Caxton  in  1474.  The  zealous  patronage  of 
two  enlightened  noblemen,  Lord  Worcester  and  Lord 
Rivers,  greatly  aided  him  in  his  enterprise.  This  cen- 
tury was  also  signalized  by  the  foundation  of  many 
schools  and  colleges,  in  which  the  founders  desired  that 
the  recovered  learning  of  antiquity  should  be  uninter- 
ruptedly and  effectually  cultivated.  Eton,  the  greatest 
of  the  English  schools,  and  King's  College  at  Cam- 
bridge, were  founded  by  Henry  VI.,  between  1440  and 
1450.  Three  new  universities  arose  in  Scotland,  —  that 
of  St.  Andrew's  in  1410,  of  Glasgow  in  1450,  of 
Aberdeen  in  1494 ;  all  under  the  express  authority  of 
different  popes.  Three  or  four  unsuccessful  attempts 
were  made  in  the  course  of  this  and  the  previous 
century,  —  the  latest  in  1496,  —  to  establish  a  university 
in  Dublin.  Several  colleges  were  founded  at  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  among 
which  we  may  specify  Christ  Church,  the  largest 
college  at  the  former  university,  which,  however,  was 
originally  planned  by  the  magnificent  Wolsey  on  a  far 
larger  scale,  and  the  noble  foundation  of  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge. 

In  the  period  now  before  us  our  attention  will  be 
directed  to  three  subjects, — the  poets,  whether  English 
or  Scotch,  the  state  and  progress  of  learning,  and  the 
prose-writers.  The  manner  in  which  the  great  and 
complex  movement  of  the  Reformation  influenced  for 
good  or  evil  the  development  of  literature,  is  too  wide 
a  subject  to  be  fully  considered  here.  Something, 
however,  will  be  said  under  this  head,  when  we  come 
to  sketch  the  rise  of  the  "new  learning,"  or  study  of 
the  humanities,  in  England,  and  inquire  into  the 
causes  of  its  fitful  and  intermittent  growth. 


48  HISTOEY  OF  ENGLISH  LITEEATUEE. 

Poetry:    Hardyng,    Hawes,    Skelton,    Surrey,   Wyat,   first    Poet 
Laureate. 

The  poets  of  this  period,  at  least  on  the  English  side 
of  the  border,  were  of  small  account.  The  middle  of 
the  fifteenth  century  witnessed  the  expulsion  of  the 
English  from  France ;  and  a  time  of  national  humilia- 
tion is  unfavorable  to  the  production  of  poetry.  If, 
indeed,  humiliation  become  permanent,  and  involve 
subjection  to  the  stranger,  the  plaintive  wailings  of  the 
elegiac  Muse  are  naturally  evoked ;  as  we  see  in  the 
instances  of  Ireland  and  Wales.  But  where  a  nation  is 
merely  disgraced,  not  crushed,  it  keeps  silence,  and 
waits  for  a  better  day.  For  more  than  thirty  years 
after  the  loss  of  the  French  provinces,  England  was 
distracted  and  weakened  by  the  civil  wars  of  the  Roses. 
This  was  also  a  time  unfavorable  to  poetry,  the  makers 
of  which  then  and  long  afterwards  depended  on  the 
patronage  of  the  noble  and  wealthy,  —  a  patronage 
which  in  that  time  of  fierce  passions,  alternate  suffer- 
ing, and  universal  disquietude,  was  not  likely  to  be 
steadily  maintained.  Why  the  fifty  years  which  fol- 
lowed the  victory  of  Bosworth  should  have  been  so 
utterly  barren  of  good  poetry,  it  is  less  easy  to  see. 
All  that  can  be  said  is,  that  this  was  an  age  of  prepara- 
tion, in  which  men  disentombed  and  learned  to  appre- 
ciate old  treasures,  judging  that  they  were  much  better 
employed  than  in  attempting  to  produce  new  matter, 
with  imperfect  means  and  models.  Towards  the  close 
of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  were  produced  the  "  Songs 
and  Sonnettes"  of  the  friends  Lord  Surrey  and  Sir 
Thomas  Wyat;  and  Sackville  wrote  the  induction  to 
the  "  Mirrour  for  Magistrates,"  in  the  last  year  of  Mary. 

Scotland  seems  to  have  been  about  a  century  later 
than  England  in  arriving  at  the  stage  of  literary  cul- 
ture which  Chaucer  and  his  contemporaries  illustrate. 


REVIVAL   OF  LEARNING.  49 

Several  poets  of  no  mean  order  arose  in  that  country 
during  the  period  now  in  question.  Of  some  of  these, 
namely,  Dunbar,  Gawain  Douglas,  Lyndsay,  and 
Henryson,  we  shall  presently  have  to  make  particular 
mention. 

John  Hardyng  was  in  early  life  an  esquire  to  Harry  Percy,  com- 
monly called  Hotspur.  After  seeing  his  lord  fall  on  the  field  of 
Shrewsbury,  he  took  service  with  Sir  Robert  Umfravile,  and  remained 
till  his  death  a  dependant  on  that  family.  He  wrote,  in  that  common 
seven-line  stanza  which  we  have  called  the  "Chaucerian  heptastich," 
a  "  Chronicle  of  Britain,"  which  comes  down  to  1462,  ending  with 
an  address  to  Edward  IV.,  urging  him  to  be  merciful  to  the  Lancas- 
trians, and  to  make  just  allowance  for  previous  circumstances. 

Stephen  Hawes,  groom  of  the  chamber  to  Henry 
VII.,  wrote,  among  other  poems,  "  The  Pastime  of 
Pleasure,"  a  narrative  allegory  like  "  The  Romance  of 
the  Rose,"  "  The  Vision  of  Piers  Plowman,"  and  so 
many  other  favorite  poems  of  the  fourteenth  and  fif- 
teenth centuries.  This  work  is  the  seven-line  stanza 
so  much  employed  by  Chaucer.  The  versification  has 
little  of  the  smoothness  and  music  of  the  great  master ; 
it  is  rough  and  untunable,  like  that  of  Lydgate.  Hawes 
must  have  died  after  the  year  1509,  since  we  have 
among  his  poems  a  coronation  ode  celebrating  the 
accession  of  Henry  VIII.  John  Skelton,  a  secular 
priest,  studied  at  both  universities,  and  had  a  high 
reputation  for  scholarship  in  the  early  part  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  It  is  certain  that  his  Latin  verses  are 
much  superior  to  his  serious  attempts  in  English.  A 
long  rambling  elegy  in  the  seven-line  stanza  on  Henry, 
fourth  Earl  of  Northumberland,  murdered  in  1489,  will 
be  found  in  Percy.  The  versification  is  even  worse 
than  that  of  Hawes.  In  Skelton's  satires  there  is  a 
naturalness  and  a  humor  which  make  them  still  read- 
able. Two  of  these,  entitled,  "  Speke,  Parrot,"  and 


50  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

44  Why  come  ye  not  to  Court  ?  "  contain  vigorous  but 
coarse  attacks  on  Cardinal  Wolsey,  to  escape  from 
whose  wrath  Skelton  had  to  take  sanctuary  at  West- 
minster, and  afterwards  was  protected  by  Bishop  Islip 
till  his  death  in  1529.  He  is  particularly  fond  of  short 
six-syllable  lines,  which  some  have  named  from  him, 
44  Skeltonical  verse."  Here  is  a  short  specimen,  taken 
from  44  Phyllyp  Sparowe,"  a  strange  rambling  elegy 
upon  a  favorite  sparrow,  belonging  to  a  nun,  which 
had  been  killed  by  a  cat :  — 

*  "  O  cat  of  carlyshe  kinde, 

The  fynde  was  in  thy  mynde 

When  thou  my  byrde  untwynde ! 

I  wold  thou  haddest  ben  blynde  I 

The  leopardes  sauvage, 

The  lyons  in  theyr  rage, 

Myght  catche  the  in  theyr  pawes, 

And  gnawe  the*  in  theyr  jawes ! 

The  serpentes  of  Lybany 

Myght  stynge  the'  venymously ! 

The  dragones  with  their  tongues 

Myght  poison  thy  lyver  and  longes ! 

The  mantycors  of  the  montaynes 

Myght  fede  them  on  thy  braynes ! "  &c. 

Skelton  is  also  the  author  of  a  moral  play,  called 
"  Magnyfycence,"  an  inane  production  of  between 
two  and  three  thousand  lines,  in  the  same  rough 
44  Saturnian  "  metre  in  which,  as  we  shall  see,  the  first 
known  English  comedy,  by  Udall,  was  composed. 
There  is  no  division  into  acts,  only  into  scenes  ;  the 
characters  are  mere  abstractions,  such  as  Felycyte, 
Liberte,  Measure,  Fansy,  Foly,  &c.  His  comedy  of 
44  Achademios,"  enumerated  by  himself  among  his 
works  in  the  "  Garland  of  Laurell,"  appears  to  have 
perished :  should  it  ever  come  to  light,  it  might  possibly 
take  from  "  Ralph  Roister  Doister  "  the  distinction  of 
being  the  earliest  English  comedy.1  Alexander  Bar- 
1  See  Skelton' s  works,  carefully  edited  by  Mr.  Dyce,  1843. 


REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING.  51 

clay,  chaplain  at  the  College  of  St.  Mary  Ottery,  in 
Devonshire,  is  known  as  the  translator,  with  additions, 
of  Sebastian  Brandt's  German  poem  of  the  "  Ship  of 
Fools,"  a  satire  upon  society  in  general. 

Far  above  these  barbarous  rhymers  rose  the  poetic 
genius  of  Surrey.  Henry  Howard,  Earl  of  Surrey,  son 
of  the  victor  of  Flodden,  was  born  about  the  year 
1516.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  was  contracted  in 
marriage  to  the  Lady  Frances  Vere.  His  Geraldine, 
to  whom  so  many  of  his  sonnets  are  addressed,  was  a 
daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Kildare.  She  slighted  his 
passion  ;  and  the  rejected  lover  carried  the  fiery  ardor 
of  his  spirit  into  the  scenes  of  war  and  diplomacy. 
Having  committed  some  errors  in  the  conduct  of  the 
campaign  in  France  in  1546,  he  was  thrown  into  prison 
by  order  of  the  "jealous,  ruthless  tyrant"1  who  then 
sat  on  the  throne,  brought  to  trial  on  a  trumpery  charge 
of  high  treason,  and  beheaded  in  January,  154T,  a  few 
days  before  Henry's  death.  His  "  Songes  and  Son- 
nettes,"  together  with  those  of  Wyat,  were  first  pub- 
lished in  1557.  His  translation  of  the  second  and 
fourth  books  of  the  ^Eneid  is  the  earliest  specimen  of 
blank  verse  in  the  language. 

Sir  Thomas  Wyat  the  elder,  a  native  of  Kent,  was 
much  employed  by  Henry  VIII.  on  diplomatic  missions  ; 
and  over-exertion  in  one  of  these  occasioned  his  early 
death  in  1541.  The  improvement  in  grace  and  polish 
of  style  which  distinguishes  Surrey  and  Wyat  in  com- 
parison with  their  predecessors  was  unquestionably  due 
to  Italian  influences.  The  very  term  "  sonnet,"  by 
them  first  introduced,  is  taken  from  the  Italian  "  so- 
netto."  Puttenham,  in  his  "  Art  of  Poesie  "  (1589), 
says  of  them,  that  "  having  travelled  into  Italie,  and 
there  tasted  the  sweet  and  stately  measures  and  style 
1  Scott's  "  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,"  canto  vi. 


52  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

of  the  Italian  poesie,  as  novises  newly  crept  out  of  the 
school  of  Dante,  Ariosto,  and  Petrarch,  they  greatly 
polished  our  rude  and  homely  manner  of  vulgar  poesie 
from  that  it  had  been  before,  and  for  that  cause  may 
justly  be  sayd  the  first  reformers  of  our  English  metre 
and  style."  He  reputes  them  for  "  the  chief  lanternes 
of  light,"  to  all  subsequent  English  poets.  "  Their 
conceits  were  lofty,  their  style  stately,  their  convey- 
ance cleanly,  their  termes  proper,  their  metre  sweet 
and  well-proportioned ;  in  all  imitating  very  naturally 
and  studiously  their  master,  Francis  Petrarch." 

But  this  praise  is  too  unqualified.  Surrey's  transla- 
tion of  Virgil  is  as  bald  and  repulsive  a  version  as  can 
well  be.  Of  his  famous  love  poems  in  honor  of  Geral- 
dine,  nine  are  written  in  a  metre  so  absurd  (alternate 
twelve  and  fourteen  syllable  lines)  that  it  would  spoil 
the  effect  of  far  better  matter  ;  and  the  unchanging 
querulous  whine  which  characterizes  the  whole  series 
renders  it  tedious  reading.  In  truth,  notwithstanding 
the  senseless  encomiums  which  Dr.  Nott  lavished  on 
his  favorite  author,  the  gems  in  Surrey  are  but  few, 
and  may  be  counted  on  one's  fingers.  The  sonnets 
beginning  "  Give  place,  ye  lovers,"  "  The  sote  season," 
and  "  Set  me  whereas,  "  1  nearly  exhaust  the  list. 

Of  the  poems  of  Wyat  a  large  proportion  are  translated  or  imitated 
from  the  Italian.  They  relate  almost  entirely  to  love,  and  sometimes 
attain  to  a  polish  and  a  grace  which  English  verse  had  not  before  ex- 
hibited. Of  this  the  reader  may  in  some  degree  judge  from  the  pas- 
sage quoted  further  on.2 

To  this  period  rather  than  to  the  next,  since  a  portion  of  it  was  in 
type  in  the  year  1555,  belongs  the  extensive  poetical  work  —  merito- 
rious in  many  ways,  but  inadequate  in  point  of  execution  to  the 
vastness  of  the  design  —  entitled  the  "  Myrroure  for  Magistrates." 
Lydgate's  "Falls  of  Princes,"  translated  from  Boccaccio,  was  re- 
printed in  1554,  and  well  received  by  the  public.  The  printer  desired 
that  the  work  should  be  continued  from  the  date  at  which  Boccaccio 

i  See  p.  438.  2  Ibid. 


KEVIVAL  OF  LEARNING.  53 

left  off,  and  devoted  to  the  "  tragical  histories  "  of  famous  Englishmen 
exclusively.  William  Baldwin  agreed,  if  sufficiently  aided  by  other 
writers,  to  undertake  the  work.  Owing  to  difficulties  connected  with 
the  censorship,  the  book  did  not  appear  till  1559;  in  this  its  primitive 
shape  it  contained  nineteen  legends,  of  which  twelve  were  by  Bald- 
win himself,  the  rest  being  written  by  his  friends  Ferrers,  Phaier, 
Chaloner,  and  others.  The  first  legend  was  that  of  Tressilian,  one  of 
Kichard  II. 's  judges,  executed  by  Gloucester's  faction  in  1388.  The 
metre  is  the  Chaucerian  heptastich.  Copious  moralizing  is  the  lead- 
ing characteristic  of  the  whole  work.  This  note  was  just  suited  to  the 
serious,  self-inspecting,  somewhat  melancholy  temper  of  the  English 
mind;  and  numerous  redactions  of  the  poem,  the  latest  of  which 
appeared  in  1610,  attest  its  remarkable  popularity.  Sackville's  beau- 
tiful "  Induction,"  with  the  legend  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham 
who  was  beheaded  in  1521,  first  appeared  in  the  edition  of  1563.  The 
original  design,  which  was  merely  to  continue  Boccaccio,  was  soon 
departed  from ;  and  a  number  of  legends  were  added,  which  carried 
back  this  "  history  teaching  by  biography  "  to  the  fabulous  age  of  the 
British  kings.  One  great  redaction  and  re-arrangement  was  effected 
by  John  Higgins  in  his  edition  of  1587 ;  another  by  Richard  Niccols 
in  the  crowning  edition  of  1610.  In  this  last  no  fewer  than  ninety 
legends  are  contained ;  among  which  one  —  the  finest  perhaps  in  the 
whole  work  —  is  the  legend  of  Thomas  Cromwell  by  Michael  Dray- 
ton.1 

The  earliest  mention  of  a  poet-laureate  eo  nomine  oc- 
curs in  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.,  by  whom  John  Kaye 
was  appointed  to  that  office.2  We  read  of  a  king's  ver- 
sifier (versificator)  as  far  back  as  1251.  The  change  of 
title  admits  of  a  probable  explanation.  The  solemn 
crowning  of  Petrarch  on  the  Capitol,  in  the  year  1341, 
made  a  profound  sensation  through  all  literary  circles 
in  Europe.  Chaucer,  as  we  have  seen,  distinguishes 
Petrarch  as  "  the  laureat  poete."  In  the  next  century 
we  find  the  dignity  of  poeta  laureatus  forming  one  of 
the  recognized  degrees  at  our  universities,  and  con- 
ferred upon  proof  being  given  by  the  candidate  of  pro- 
ficiency in  grammar,  rhetoric,  and  versification.  It  is 

1  See  Mr.  Haslewood's  edition  of  "  The  Mirrour  for  Magistrates," 
1815. 

2  Hazlitt's  Johnson's  Lives,  article  Kaye. 

5* 


54  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

impossible  not  to  connect  this  practice  of  laureation 
with  the  world-famous  tribute  rendered  by  the  Romans 
to  the  genius  of  Petrarch.  After  the  institution  of  the 
degree,  it  is  easy  to  understand  that  the  king  would 
select  his  poet  among  the  poetce  laureati,  and  that  the 
modest  title  of  versificator  would  be  dropped. 

Scottish   Poets :  Henryson,  Dunbar,  Gawain  Douglas,  Lyndsay, 
Blind    Harry. 

The  present  work  does  not  pretend  to  trace  the  his- 
tory of  Scottish  poetry ;  but,  in  the  dearth  of  genius 
in  England  during  this  period,  the  rise  of  several  ad- 
mirable poets  in  the  sister  country  demands  our  atten- 
tion. The  earliest  of  these,  Robert  Henryson,  appears 
to  have  died  about  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
His  longest  poem,  "  The  Testament  of  Faire  Cre- 
seyde,"  a  sort  of  supplement  to  Chaucer's  "  Troilus 
and  Creseyde,"  was  printed  by  Urry,  in  his  edition  of 
that  poet.  The  pastoral,  called  "  Robin  and  Makyne," 
is  given  in  Percy's  "  Reliques."  The  pith  of  the  story 
is  exactly  that  which  we  find  in  Burns's  "  Duncan 
Gray,"  only  that  in  Henryson's  poem  the  parts  are  re- 
versed ;  it  is  the  lady  who  first  makes  love  in  vain,  and 
then,  growing  indifferent,  is  vainly  wooed  by  the  shep- 
herd who  has  repented  of  his  coldness.  "  The  Abbey 
Walk  "  is  a  beautiful  poem  of  reflection,  the  moral  of 
which  is,  the  duty  and  wisdom  of  submitting  humbly 
to  the  will  of  God  in  all  things. 

William  Dunbar,  the  greatest  of  the  old  Scottish 
poets,  was  a  native  of  East  Lothian,  and  born  about 
the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century.  He  studied  at  the 
University  of  St.  Andrew's,  perhaps  also  at  Oxford. 
In  early  life  he  entered  the  novitiate  of  the  Franciscan 
order,  but  does  not  appear  to  have  taken  the  vows. 
James  IV.  attached  him  by  many  favors  to  his  person 


REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING.  55 

and  court,  where  we  have  certain  evidence  of  his  hav- 
ing lived  from  1500  to  1513,  the  date  of  Flodden. 
After  that  fatal  day,  on  which  his  royal  patron  per- 
ished, his  name  vanishes  from  the  Scottish  records ;  and 
it  is  merely  a  loose  conjecture  which  assigns  his  death 
to  about  the  year  1520. 

Dunbar's  most  perfect  poem  is  "  The  Thistle  and  the 
Rose,"  1  written  in  1503  to  commemorate  the  nuptials  of 
James  IV.,  and  Margaret,  daughter  of  Henry  VII.  The 
metre  is  the  Chaucerian  heptastich,  invented,  as  we 
have  seen,  by  Chaucer,  and  employed  by  all  his  success- 
ors down  to  Spenser  inclusive.  The  versification  is 
most  musical,  —  superior  to  that  of  any  poet  before 
Spenser  except  Chaucer,  and  better  than  much  of  his. 
The  influence,  both  direct  and  indirect,  of  the  father  of 
our  poetry,  is  visible,  not  in  this  poem  alone,  but 
throughout  the  works  of  the  school  of  writers  now 
under  consideration.  The  poet,  according  to  the  ap- 
proved mediaeval  usage,  falls  asleep  and  has  a  dream,  in 
which  May  —  the  "  faire  frische  May  "  in  which  Chau- 
cer so  delighted  —  appears  to  him,  and  commands  him 
to  attend  her  into  a  garden,  and  do  homage  to  the  flow- 
ers, the  birds,  and  the  sun.  Nature  is  then  introduced, 
and  commands  that  the  progress  of  the  spring  shall  no 
longer  be  checked  by  ungenial  weather.  Neptune  and 
^Eolus  give  the  necessary  orders.  Then  Nature,  by  her 
messengers,  summons  all  organized  beings  before  her, 
the  beasts  by  the  roe,  the  birds  by  the  swallow,  the 
flowers  by  the  yarrow.  The  lion  is  crowned  king  of 
the  beasts,  the  eagle  of  the  birds,  and  the  thistle  of 
the  flowers.  The  Rose,  the  type  of  beauty,  is  wedded 
to  the  Thistle,  the  type  of  strength,  who  is  commanded 
well  to  cherish  and  guard  his  Rose.  Such  is  an  outline 
of  the  plot  of  this  beautiful  and  graceful  poem. 
1  See  Critical  Section,  chap,  i.,  Allegories. 


56  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

"  The  design  of  4  The  Golden  Terge  '  "  —  another  alle- 
goric poem — "  is  to  show  the  gradual  and  impercepti- 
ble influence  of  love  when  too  far  indulged  over 
reason."  1  This  poem  is  in  a  curious  nine-line  stanza, 
having  only  two  rhymes.  But  Dunbar  excelled  also  in 
comic  and  satirical  composition.  "  The  Dance  of  the 
Seven  Deadly  Sins  "  is  a  production  of  this  kind,  the 
humor,  dash,  and  broad  Scotch  of  which  remind  one 
strongly  of  Burns.  The  metre  is  that  of  Chaucer's 
'*  Sir  Topas."  Some  Highlanders  are  introduced  at 
the  end,  and  receive  very  disrespectful  mention  :  — 

"  Thae  turmaganiis2  with  tag  and  tatter 
Full  loud  in  Ersche  [Erse]  begout  to  clatter, 

And  rowp  lyk  revin  and  ruke.8 
The  devil  sa  devit4  was  with  thair  yell 
That  in  the  deepest  pit  of  hell 

He  smorit  them  with  smoke." 

Gawain  Douglas,  sprung  from  a  noble  family,  studied 
at  the  University  of  Paris,  and  rose  to  be  bishop  of 
Dunkeld.  After  Flodden  field,  the  regent  Albany 
drove  him  from  Scotland.  Coming  into  England,  he 
was  hospitably  received  by  Henry,  who  allowed  him  a 
liberal  pension.  He  died  in  London  of  the  plague,  in 
1521.  He  is  chiefly  known  for  a  translation  of  the 
jEneid  into  heroic  verse,  which  is  the  earliest  English 
version  on  record,  having  been  published  in  1513.  The 
prologues  prefixed  to  the  several  books  have  great 
poetic  beauty;  and  the  language  presents  little  more 
difficulty  than  that  of  Chaucer.  The  concluding  lines 
of  one  of  these  prologues  are  subjoined  as  a  specimen  : 
they  are  part  of  an  address  to  the  sun :  — 

1  Warton. 

2  Ptarmigan ;  to  a  covey  of  which  he  compares  the  Highlanders. 
8  "Chattered  hoarsely"  is  Warton' s  explanation. 

4  Deafened. 


REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING.  57 

"  Welcum  the  birdis  beild 1  upon  the  brere, 
Welcurn  maister  and  reulare  of  the  yere, 
Welcum  walefare  of  husbandis  at  the  plewis, 
Welcum  reparare  of  woodis,  treis,  and  bewis.2 
Welcum  depaynter  of  the  blomyt  medis, 
Welcum  the  lyffe  of  every  thing  that  spredis, 
Welcum  storare  3  of  all  kynd  bestial, 
Welcum  be  thy  bricht  benies  gladand  al." 

Sir  David  Lyndsay  was  a  satirist  of  great  power  and 
boldness.  He  is  the  Jean  de  Meun 4  of  the  sixteenth 
century ;  but,  as  a  layman  and  a  knight,  he  levels  his 
satire  with  even  greater  directness  and  impartiality  than 
that  extraordinary  ecclesiastic.  In  his  allegorical  satire 
entitled  "  The  Dreme,"  the  poet  is  conducted  by  Remem- 
brance, first  to  the  infernal  regions,  which  he  finds  peo- 
pled with  churchmen  of  every  grade,  then  to  Purgatory, 
then  through  the  "  three  elements  "  to  the  seven  planets 
in  their  successive  spheres,  then  beyond  them  to  the 
empyrean  and  the  celestial  abodes.  The  poetical  topog- 
raphy is,  without  doubt,  borrowed  from  Dante.  He  is 
then  transported  back  to  earth,  and  visits  Paradise  ; 
whence  by  a  "  very  rapid  transition,"  as  Warton  calls 
it,  he  is  taken  to  Scotland,  where  he  meets  "  Johne  the 
comounweill,"  who  treats  him  to  a  long  general  satire 
on  the  corrupt  state  of  that  kingdom.  After  this,  the 
poet  is  in  the  usual  manner  brought  back  to  the  cave  by 
the  seaside,  where  he  falls  asleep,  and  wakes  up  from 
his  dream.  The  metre  is  the  Chaucerian  heptastich. 
There  is  prefixed  to  the  poem  an  exhortation  in  ten 
stanzas,  addressed  to  King  James  V.,  in  which  advice 
and  warning  are  conveyed  with  unceremonious  plain- 
ness. Among  Lyndsay's  remaining  poems,  the  most 
important  is  "  The  Monarchic,"  an  account  of  the 

1  Shelter.        2  Boughs.        3  Restorer. 

4  Author  of  the  continuation  of  the  Roman  de  la  Rose,  the  caustic 
cynicism  of  which  is  almost  incredible.  See  p.  31. 


58  HISTORY   OF    ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

most  famous  monarchies  that  have  flourished  in  the 
world,  commencing  with  the  creation  of  man,  and  end- 
ing with  the  day  of  judgment.  This  poem,  which  is  for 
the  most  part  in  the  common  romance  metre,  or  eight- 
syllable  couplet,  runs  over  with  satire  and  invective. 
Lyndsay's  powerful  attacks  on  the  Scottish  clergy,  the 
state  of  which  at  that  time  unfortunately  afforded  but 
too  much  ground  for  them,  are  said  to  have  hastened  the 
religious  war  in  Scotland. 

At  the  very  beginning  of  this  period,  or  about  1460, 
Blind  Harry,  or  Harry  the  Minstrel,  produced  his  poem 
on  the  adventures  of  Wallace.  Considered  as  the  com- 
position of  a  blind  man,  "  The  Wallace  "  is  a  remarkable 
production  ;  considered  as  a  work  of  art,  a  more  execra- 
ble poem  perhaps  was  never  composed.  Yet  national 
resentment  and  partiality  have  made  the  Scotch,  from 
the  fifteenth  century  down  to  the  present  time,  delight 
in  this  tissue  of  lies  and  nonsense.  A  modernized  version 
of  it  was  a  horn-book  among  the  peasantry  in  the  last 
century.  Scottish  critics,  one  and  all,  speak  of  its  poeti- 
cal beauties ;  and  even  one  or  two  English  writers, 
"  carried  away  by  their  dissimulation,"  have  professed 
to  find  much  in  it  to  admire.  It  is  written  in  the  heroic 
rhyming  couplet,  and  professes  to  be  founded  on  a  Latin 
chronicle  by  John  Blair,  a  contemporary  of  Wallace; 
but  as  no  such  chronicle  exists,  nor  is  anywhere  alluded 
to  as  existing,  it  is  probable  that  the  whole  story  is  a 
pure  invention  of  the  minstrel's.  That  a  poem  which 
makes  of  Wallace  a  Scottish  "  Jack  the  giant-killer," 
killing  and  maiming  innumerable  Englishmen  upon 
every  possible  occasion,  should  satisfy  the  intellectual 
appetite  of  a  Lowland  peasant,  whom  household  tra- 
dition has  nurtured  up  in  feelings  of  anti-English  preju- 
dice that  once  had  too  real  a  justification,  is  easily 
intelligible ;  but  that  is  no  reason  why  men  of  sense 


REVIVAL   OF   LEARNING.  59 

and  education  should  indorse  a  popular  estimate  which 
it  is  impossible  that  they  themselves  can  share.  If  there 
were  an  "  Early  Scottish  Text  "  society,  "  The  Wallace  " 
would  doubtless  form  a  fitting  subject  for  its  attentions, 
but,  considered  within  the  sphere  of  literature,  it  is 
desirable  that  its  utter  worthlessness  should  be  as  much 
recognized  in  Scotland  as  that  of  Addison's  "  Campaign," 
and  many  other  compositions  more  patriotic  than  poeti- 
cal, has  long  been  amongst  ourselves.1 

The  language  of  all  these  Scottish  writers  in  their 
serious  compositions  closely  resembles  the  English  of 
their  contemporaries  south  of  the  Tweed;  the  chief 
difference  consisting  in  certain  dialectic  peculiarities, 
such  as  the  use  of  "  quh  "  for  "  wh,"  and  of  "  it  "  and 
44  and  "  for  "  ed  "  and  "  ing,"  in  the  terminations  of  the 
past  and  present  participles.  But  in  proportion  as  they 
resort  to  comic  expression,  and  attach  their  satire  to 
particular  places  or  persons,  their  language  becomes  less 
English,  and  slides  into  the  rough  vernacular  of  their 
ordinary  speech.  Exactly  the  same  tiling  is  observable 
in  Burns's  poetry. 

Learning:    Grocyn,  Colet,  the  Humanities,  State  of  the 
Universities. 

The  fifteenth  century  was,  as  we  have  said,  pre-emi- 
nently an  age  of  accumulation,  assimilation,  and  prepara- 
tion. 

The  first  two-thirds  of  the  sixteenth  century  fall  under 
the  same  general  description.  England  had  to  bring 
herself  up  to  the  intellectual  level  of  the  Continent,  and 
to  master  the  treasures  of  literature  and  philosophy 
which  the  revival  and  diffusion  of  Greek,  and  partly  of 
Roman  learning,  had  placed  within  her  reach,  before 

1  For  a  full  account  of  Blind  Harry,  see  Irving' s  History  of  Scottish 
Poetry,  p.  174. 


GO  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

her  writers  could  attempt  to  rival  the  fame  of  the  great 
ancients.  There  is  much  interest  in  tracing  in  detail 
the  numerous  minute  steps  and  individual  acts  which 
helped  on  this  process.  Many  such  are  related  by  Wood 
in  his  "  Athense  Oxonienses."  Thus  we  are  told  that 
the  first  man  who  publicly  taught  Greek  at  Oxford 
was  William  Grocyn.  Stapletori,  a  Roman  Catholic 
writer  of  the  age  of  Elizabeth,  says,  "  Recens  tune  ex 
Italia  venerat  Grocinus,  qui  primus  in  ea  setate  Grsecas 
literas  in  Angliam  invexerat,  Oxoniique  publice  pro- 
fessus  fuerat."  Of  course  Grocyn  had  to  go  abroad  to 
get  this  new  learning.  Born  about  1450,  and  educated 
at  Oxford,  he  travelled  on  the  Continent  about  the  year 
1488,  and  studied  both  at  Rome  and  Florence.  Greek 
learning  flourished  then  at  Florence  more  than  at  any 
place  in  Europe,  owing  to  the  fact  that  Lorenzo  de 
Medici  had  eagerly  welcomed  to  his  court  many  illustri- 
ous and  learned  refugees,  who,  subsequently  to  the  fall 
of  Constantinople,  had  been  forced  to  seek  shelter  from 
the  violence  and  intolerance  of  the  Mussulmans  in  West- 
ern Europe.  One  of  these  learned  Byzantines,  Deme- 
trius Chalcocondyles,  together  with  the  Italian  Angelo 
Politian,  afforded  to  Grocyn  by  their  public  instructions 
those  opportunities  which  he  had  left  his  country  to 
search  for,  —  of  penetrating  into  the  sanctuary  of  classi- 
cal antiquity,  and  drinking  in  at  the  fountain-head  the 
inspirations  of  a  national  genius  whose  glories  no  lapse 
of  time  can  obscure.  Gibbon,1  with  his  usual  fulness 
of  learning  and  wonderful  mastery  of  style,  has  thus 
sketched  the  features  of  this  eventful  time  :  — 

"  The  genius  and  education  of  Lorenzo  rendered  him 
not  only  a  patron,  but  a  judge  and  candidate,  in  the 
literary  race.  In  his  palace,  distress  was  entitled  to 
relief,  and  merit  to  reward;  his  leisure  hours  were 

1  Decline  and  Fall,  chap.  Ixvi. 


REVIVAL   OF  LEAENING.  61 

delightfully  spent  in  the  Platonic  academy ;  he  encour- 
aged the  emulation  of  Demetrius  Chalcocondyles  and 
Angelo  Politian  ;  and  his  active  missionary,  Janus  Las- 
caris,  returned  from  the  East  with  a  treasure  of  two 
hundred  manuscripts,  fourscore  of  which  were  as  yet 
unknown  in  the  libraries  of  Europe.  The  rest  of  Italy 
was  animated  by  a  similar  spirit,  and  the  progress  of  the 
nation  repaid  the  liberality  of  her  princes.  The  Latins 
held  the  exclusive  property  of  their  own  literature ;  and 
these  disciples  of  Greece  were  soon  capable  of  trans- 
mitting and  improving  the  lessons  which  they  had 
imbibed.  After  a  short  succession  of  foreign  teachers, 
the  tide  of  emigration  subsided.  But  the  language  of 
Constantinople  was  spread  beyond  the  Alps;  and  the 
natives  of  France,  Germany,  and  England  imparted  to 
their  countrymen  the  sacred  fire  which  they  had  kindled 
in  the  schools  of  Florence  and  Rome."  After  noticing 
the  spirit  of  imitation  which  long  prevailed,  he  con- 
tinues, "  Genius  may  anticipate  the  season  of  maturity ; 
but  in  the  education  of  a  people,  as  in  that  of  an  indi- 
vidual, memory  must  be  exercised  before  the  powers  of 
reason  and  fancy  can  be  expanded ;  nor  may  the  artist 
hope  to  equal  or  surpass,  till  he  has  learned  to  imitate, 
the  works  of  his  predecessors." 

But  to  return  to  Grocyn,  whose  visit  to  Florence 
ocaasioned  this  quotation.  When  settled  in  Oxford 
again,  about  the  year  1490,  he  opened  his  budget,  and 
taught  Greek  to  all  comers.  Among  his  hearers  was  a 
youth  of  much  promise,  from  London,  known  after- 
wards to  his  own  and  later  ages  as  Sir  Thomas  More. 

Thomas  Linacre,  the  celebrated  physician,  was  in  residence  and 
giving  lectures  at  Oxford  about  the  same  time.  He,  too,  had  studied 
in  Italy,  chiefly  at  Florence  and  Rome,  and  had  become  an  accom- 
plished Greek  scholar.  It  is  to  him  that  we  owe  the  first  version  of 
any  Greek  author  made  by  an  Englishman.  This  was  a  Latin  transla- 
tion, published  in  1499,  of  the  Sphoera  of  Proclus,  an  astronomical 
7 


62  HISTOKY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

treatise.  Linacre  also  translated  into  Latin  the  works  of  the  old 
Greek  physician  Galen,  and  was  the  leading  spirit  in  the  knot  of 
enlightened  men  who  founded  the  College  of  Physicians  (1518). 

Another  active  patron  of  the  new  learning  was  Dean 
Colet,  the  founder  of  St.  Paul's  School,  and  the  friend 
of  Erasmus.  He,  too,  had  travelled  extensively,  and 
observed  admiringly.  He  had  remarked  how  Lorenzo 
de  Medici  labored  to  build  up  a  sort  of  Utopia  of  intelli- 
gence and  refinement,  made  beautiful  by  art,  and 
governed  by  wisdom  ;  and  it  seems  that  in  these  rougher 
northern  climates  he  had  some  design  of  reproducing  a 
faint  resemblance  of  the  gardens  of  Bellosguardo.  On 
the  lands  of  his  monastery  at  Sheen,  near  Richmond, 
he  built  himself,  long  before  his  death,  a  magnificent 
mansion,  whither,  he  said,  he  designed  to  retire  in  his 
old  age,  and  amid  a  circle  of  intellectual  friends  enjoy 
the  sweets  of  a  philosophical  and  lettered  ease.1  This 
was  a  Pagan,  rather  than  a  Christian  ideal.  It  shows 
how  far  the  contact  with  the  genius  of  antiquity  intox- 
icated the  spirit  even  of  a  thoroughly  good  man  :  how 
disturbing,  then,  must  have  been  its  effects  upon  men 
of  lower  character  ! 

In  this  age  of  strange  excitement,  when  a  new  world, 
supposed  to  teem  with  wealth,  had  just  been  discovered 
in  the  West,  when  by  the  invention  of  printing  thoughts 
•were  communicated  and  their  records  multiplied  with  a 
speed  which  must  then  have  seemed  marvellous,  and 
when  the  astronomical  theory  of  Copernicus  was  revo- 
lutionizing men's  ideas  as  to  the  very  fundamental 
relations  between  the  earth  and  the  heavens,  unsettling 
those  even  whom  it  did  not  convince,  there  was  a  tem- 
porary forgetfulness  on  the  part  of  many,  even  in  the 
Christian  Church,  that  this  life,  dignify  it  as  you  may, 
is,  after  all,  a  scene  of  trial,  not  of  triumph,  and  that,  if 

1  Flanagan's  Church  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  11. 


REVIVAL   OF  LEARNING.  63 

Christianity  be  true,  suffering  is  on  earth  a  higher  state 
than  enjoyment,  and  poverty  in  one  sense  preferable  to 
wealth.  The  Reformers  seized  on  this  weak  point  then 
noticeable  in  many  of  the  clergy,  and  made  out  of  it, 
to  use  a  modern  phrase,  abundant  controversial  capital. 
Human  learning,  they  said  —  Luther  himself  originated 
the  cry  —  was  a  waste  of  time,  as  well  as  a  dangerous 
snare ;  art  was  a  mere  pandering  to  the  passions. 
Sinful  man  should  be  engrossed  but  by  one  pursuit,  the 
pursuit  of  salvation ;  should  study  only  one  book,  and 
that  the  Bible.  When  the  party  that  favored  the 
Reformation  came  into  power  under  Edward  VI.,  this 
spirit  operated  with  prejudicial  effect  on  the  young 
plants  of  learning  and  culture  which  had  begun  to 
spring  up  at  our  universities.  To  take  one  well-known 
instance :  the  ecclesiastical  commissioners  of  Edward, 
in  their  visitation  to  Oxford,  destroyed  or  removed  a 
valuable  collection,  impossible  to  be  replaced,  of  six 
hundred  manuscripts  of  the  classical  authors,  presented 
by  Humphrey,  the  good  Duke  of  Gloucester,  uncle  of 
Henry  VI.,  to  that  university.  The  Roman  Catholic 
hierarchy  also,  among  whom,  as  in  the  case  of  Nicholas 
V.  and  Leo  X.,  some  of  the  most  intelligent  and  zealous 
promoters  of  the  new  learning  had  been  found,  saw 
reason,  about  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  to 
change  their  tactics.  In  England,  at  any  rate,  we  know 
that  the  bishops,  under  Queen  Mary,  discouraged  the 
study  of  the  humanities,  and  attempted  to  revive  in 
their  place  the  old  scholastic  exercises  and  disputations. 
The  reformers  immediately  —  with  some  inconsistency, 
it  must  be  confessed  —  set  up  the  cry,  "  You  are  trying 
to  shut  out  enlightenment,  to  set  up  the  barbarous 
scholastic  in  preference  to  the  Ciceronian  Latinity. 
You  are  enemies  of  progress,  of  civilization,  of  the 
enlargement  of  the  mind." 


64  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

This  point  will  be  illustrated  presently.  In  connection 
with  the  spread  of  learning  in  England,  the  name  of 
Cardinal  Wolsey  must  not  be  omitted.  Shakspeare  has 
described  his  services  in  language  that  cannot  be 
amended : 1  — 

"  This  Cardinal, 

Though  from  an  humble  stock,  undoubtedly 
Was  fashioned  to  much  honor  from  his  cradle. 
He  was  a  scholar,  and  a  ripe  and  good  one ; 
Exceeding  wise,  fair  spoken,  and  persuading ; 
Lofty  and  sour  to  them  that  loved  him  not, 
But,  to  those  men  that  sought  him,  sweet  as  summer, 
And  though  he  were  unsatisfied  in  getting 
(Which  was  a  sin),  yet  in  bestowing,  madam, 
He  was  most  princely.     Ever  witness  for  him 
Those  twins  of  learning,  that  he  'raised  in  you, 
Ipswich  and  Oxford:  one  of  which  fell  with  him, 
Unwilling  to  outlive  the  good  that  did  it; 
The  other,2  though  unfinished,  yet  so  famous, 
So  excellent  in  art,  and  still  so  rising, 
That  Christendom  shall  ever  speak  his  virtue." 

Cambridge  soon  followed  the  example  of  Oxford  in 
introducing  the  study  of  Greek.  Towards  the  close  of 
the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  Sir  John  Cheke  and  Sir 
Thomas  Smith  are  mentioned  in  the  annals  of  that 
university  as  having  been  especially  active  in  promot- 
ing this  study.  Milton  refers  to  this  in  one  of  his 
sonnets  :  — 

"  Thy  age,  like  ours,  O  soul  of  Sir  Johh  Cheke, 
Hated  not  learning  worse  than  toad  or  asp, 
When  thou  taught' st  Cambridge  and  King  Edward  Greek." 

The  sense  of  insecurity  induced  among  all  classes  by 
Henry's  tyranny  in  his  later  years,  and  the  social  con- 

1  Henry  VIIL,  Act  iv.  Scene  2. 

2  Christ  Church,  which  Wolsey  intended  to  have  founded  on  a  far 
grander  even  than  its  present  scale,  and  to  have  named  Cardinal 
College. 


REVIVAL   OF  LEARNING.  65 

fusion  which  prevailed  in  the  following  reign,  interrupted 
the  peaceful  flow  of  learned  studies.  The  universities 
appear  to  have  been  sunk  in  a  lower  depth  of  inefficien- 
cy and  ignorance  about  the  year  1550  than  ever  before 
or  since.  Under  Mary,  Cardinal  Pole,  the  legate,  was 
personally  favorable  to  the  new  learning.  Sir  Thomas 
Pope,  the  founder  of  Trinity  College,  Oxford,  consulted 
him  on  the  framing  of  the  college  statutes,  in  which  it 
was  provided  that  Greek  should  form  one  of  the  subjects 
of  instruction.  In  his  legatine  constitutions,  passed  at 
a  synod  held  in  1555,  Pole  ordered  that  all  archbishops 
and  bishops,  as  well  as  holders  of  benefices  in  general, 
should  assign  a  stated  portion  of  their  revenues  to  the 
support  of  cathedral  schools  in  connection  with  every 
metropolitan  and  cathedral  church  throughout  the 
kingdom,  into  which  lay  scholars  of  respectable  parent- 
age were  to  be  admitted,  together  with  theological 
students.  These  cathedral  schools  were  kept  up  in  the 
following  reign,  and  seem  to  have  attained  considerable 
importance.  But  one  enlightened  and  generous  mind 
could  not  restrain  the  re-actionary  violence  of  the  Gardi- 
ners  'and  the  Bonners.  Under  their  management  a 
system  of  obscurantism  was  attempted,  if  not  established, 
at  the  universities ;  the  Greek  poets  and  philosophers 
were  to  be  banished,  and  scholasticism  was  to  reign 
once  more  in  the  schools.  Ascham,  in  his  "  School- 
master," thus  describes  the  state  of  things :  — 

"  The  love  of  good  learning  began  suddenly  to  wax 
cold ;  the  knowledge  of  the  tongues  was  manifestly  con- 
temned ;  yea,  I  know  that  heads  were  cast  together, 
and  counsel  devised,  that  Duns,  with  all  the  rabble  of 
barbarous  questionists,  should  have  dispossessed  of  their 
place  and  room  Aristotle,  Plato,  Tully,  and  Demosthenes, 
whom  good  Mr.  Redman,  and  those  two  worthy  stars 

6- 


66  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

of  that  university,  Cheke  and  Smith,  with  their  scholars, 
had  brought  to  flourish  as  notably  in  Cambridge  as  ever 
they  did  in  France  and  in  Italy." 

Prose  Writers. 

Although  no  prose  work  produced  during  this  period 
can  be  said  to  hold  a  place  in  our  standard  literature, 
considerable  progress  was  made  in  fitting  the  rough  and 
motley  native  idiom  for  the  various  requirements  of 
prose  composition.  Through  the  truly  national  work 
of  the  publication  of  our  early  records,  which  has  now 
been  going  on  for  many  years  under  the  superintend- 
ence of  the  Master  of  the  Rolls,  a  curious  book,  dating 
from  the  early  part  of  this  period,  has  been  made  gen- 
erally accessible.  This  is  "  The  Represser  "  of  Reginald 
Pecock,  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph.  The  modern  editor  of 
the  work,  Mr.  Babington,  calls  it,  probably  with  justice, 
"  the  earliest  piece  of  good  philosophical  disquisition  of 
which  our  English  prose  literature  can  boast."  Pecock 
was  a  Welshman ;  he  was  born  about  the  end  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  and  educated  at  Oriel  College, 
Oxford.  After  his  appointment  to  the  see  of  St. 
Asaph,  he  took  the  line  of  vehement  opposition  to  the 
teaching  of  the  Lollards,  the  followers  of  Wyclif.  The 
design  of  "  The  Represser,"  which  was  first  published  in 
a  complete  shape  about  the  year  1456,  was  to  justify  cer- 
tain practices,  or  "  governances  "  as  he  calls  them,  then 
firmly  established  in  the  Church,  which  the  Lollards 
vehemently  declaimed  against;  such  as  the  use  of 
images,  pilgrimages  to  famous  shrines,  the  holding  of 
landed  estates  by  the  clergy,  &c.  Pecock  was  made 
Bishop  of  Chichester  in  1450.  His  method  of  argu- 
ment, however,  which  consisted  in  appealing  rather  to 
reason  and  common-sense  than  to  Church  authority, 
to  justify  the  practices  complained  of,  was  displeasing  to 


REVIVAL   OF  LEAENING.  67 

most  of  his  brother  bishops ;  and  in  1457  his  books 
were  formally  condemned  in  a  synod  held  before  Henry 
VI.  at  Westminster.  He  was  deposed  from  his  bishop- 
ric, and  only  escaped  severer  treatment  by  making  a  full 
and  formal  retractation  of  his  opinions. 

The  most  interesting  work  belonging  to  this  period 
is  Sir  John  Fortescue's  treatise  on  "  The  Difference 
between  an  Absolute  and  a  Limited  Monarchy."  The 
author  was  chief  justice  of  the  Court  of  King's  Bench 
in  the  time  of  Henry  VI.  He  was  at  first  a  zealous 
Lancastrian ;  he  fought  at  Towton,  and  was  taken 
prisoner  at  Tewkesbury  in  1471,  after  which  he  was 
attainted.  But  upon  the  death  of  Henry  in  that  year, 
leaving  no  son,  Fortescue  admitted  the  legality  of  the 
claim  of  the  house  of  York,  and  thereby  obtained  the 
reversal  of  the  attainder.  The  title  of  the  work  men- 
tioned is  not  very  appropriate  :  it  should  rather  be,  "  A 
Treatise  on  the  Best  Means  of  raising  a  Revenue  for 
the  King,  and  cementing  his  Power."  These,  at  least, 
are  the  points  prominently  handled.  The  opening 
chapters  drawing  a  contrast  between  the  state  and 
character  of  the  English  peasantry  under  the  consti- 
tutional crown  of  England,  and  those  of  the  French 
peasantry  under  the  absolute  monarchy  of  France,  are 
full  of  acute  remarks  and  curious  information.  It  is 
instructive  to  notice,  that  Fortescue  (chap,  xii.)  speaks 
of  England's  insular  position  as  a  source  of  weakness, 
because  it  laid  her  open  to  attack  on  every  side.  The 
observation  reminds  us  how  modern  a  creation  is  the 
powerful  British  navy,  the  wooden  walls  of  -which  have 
turned  that  position  into  our  greatest  safeguard.  This 
work  is  in  excellent  English,  and,  if  freed  from  the 
barbarous  orthography  in  which  it  is  disguised,  could 
be  read  with  ease  and  pleasure  at  the  present  day. 
Fortescue  wrote  also,  about  the  year  1463,  an  excellent 


68  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Latin  treatise,  "  De  Laudibus  Legum  Anglise,"  designed 
for  the  use  of  the  ill-fated  Edward  Prince  of  Wales, 
son  of  Henry  VI.  and  Margaret,  in  which  he  labors  to 
prove  the  superiority  of  the  common  law  of  England 
to  the  civil  law.  No  other  prose  writer  of  the  fifteenth 
century  deserves  notice,  unless  we  except  Caxton,  who 
wrote  a  continuation  of  Trevisa's  translation  of  the 
"  Polychronicon "  to  the  year  1460,  and  printed  the 
entire  work  in  1482.  The  first  work  printed  in  Eng- 
land is  believed  to  have  been  "  The  Game  and  Play  of 
the  Chesse,"  a  moral  treatise,  translated  by  Caxton 
from  the  French,  and  turned  out  by  his  printing-press 
in  1474.  He  also  printed  a  translation,  made  by  him- 
self from  the  German,  of  the  famous  medieeval  apologue 
or  satire  of  "  Renard  the  Fox."  For  some  eighteen 
years  he  continued  with  untiring  industry  to  bring  out 
popular  works,  chiefly  religious  or  moral  treatises  and 
romances,  from  the  press ;  and,  when  he  died,  he  left 
able  successors  to  carry  on  and  extend  his  work.1 

The  effect  of  the  revival  of  ancient  learning  was,  for 
a  long  time,  to  induce  our  ablest  literary  men  to  aim  at 
a  polished  Latin  style,  rather  than  endeavor  to  improve 
their  native  tongue.  Erasmus  wished  that  Latin  should 
be  the  common  literary  language  of  Europe :  he  always 
wrote  in  it  himself,  and  held  what  he  termed  the  bar- 
barous jargon  of  his  Dutch  fatherland  in  utter  detesta- 
tion. So  Leland,  More,  and  Pole  composed,  if  not  all, 
yet  their  most  important  and  most  carefully  written 
works  in  Latin.  John  Leland  the  famous  antiquary, 
to  whose  "  Itinerarium  "  we  owe  so  much  interesting 
topographical  and  sociological  information  for  the  period 
immediately  following  the  destruction  of  the  monas- 
teries, is  the  author  of  a  number  of  Latin  elegies,  in 

1  For  fuller  particulars  about  Caxton,  see  "  The  History  of  English 
Literature,"  by  the  late  learned  Prof.  Craik  of  Belfast. 


EEVIVAL  OF  LEARNING.  69 

various  metres,  upon  the  death  of  Sir  Thomas  Wyat  the 
elder,  which  evince  no  common  elegance  and  mastery 
over  the  language.  More's  "  Utopia,"  published  in 
1516,  was  composed  in  Latin,  but  has  been  translated 
by  Burnet  and  others. 

Utopia,  according  to  its  Greek  derivation  (ov,  not ;  TOTTOC,  place)  means 
the  "  Land  of  Nowhere."  The  manners  and  customs  of  the  Utopians 
are  described  to  More  and  his  friend  Tonstall,  while  on  a  mission  in 
Flanders,  by  an  "  ancient  mariner,"  named  Raphael  Hythlodaye,  who 
has  visited  their  island.  The  work  is  a  satire  on  existing  society. 
Every  important  political  or  social  regulation  in  Utopia  is  the  reverse 
of  what  was  then  to  be  found  in  Europe.  The  condition  of  the  ideal 
commonwealth  rebukes  the  ambition  of  kings,  the  worldliness  of 
priests,  and  the  selfish  greed  of  private  persons.  The  Utopians  detest 
war,  and  will  only  take  up  arms  on  a  plain  call  of  honor  or  justice. 
Instead  of  burning  and  torturing  men  for  their  religion,  they  tolerate 
all  forms  of  belief  or  no-belief,  only  refusing  to  those  who  deny  Divine 
Providence,  and  the  soul's  immortality,  the  right  to  hold  public  offices 
or  trusts.  They  have  no  money,  but  the  wants  of  all  are  fully  supplied 
by  the  perfect  mechanism  of  their  free  government ;  equality  prevails 
among  them,  and  is  highly  prized;  idlers  are  driven  out  of  the  com- 
monwealth; and  the  lands  belonging  to  each  city,  incapable  of  appro- 
priation to  private  owners,  are  tilled  by  all  its  citizens  in  succession. 

More's  English  writings  are,  "  A  History  of  the  Life 
and  Reign  of  Edward  V.," l  written  about  1513,  a  collec- 
tion of  letters,  and  several  controversial  tracts  in  reply 
to  Tyndale  and  other  English  reformers. 

The  regular  series  of  English  prose  chronicles  com- 
mences in  this  period.  The  earliest  is  "  The  Chronicle 
of  England,"  by  John  Capgrave,  who  dedicated  the  work 
to  Edward  IV.  It  opens  with  the  creation  of  the  world, 
and  comes  down  to  1416.  It  appeared  about  the  year 
1463,  but  was  never  printed  till  it  came  out  in  the  Rolls 
Series.  Robert  Fabyan  was  an  alderman  and  sheriff  of 
London  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII. ;  his  "  Concordance 
of  Story es,"  giving  the  history  of  England  from  the 

1  See  p.  487. 


70  HISTOEY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

fabulous  Brutus  to  tlie  year  1485,  was  published  after 
the  author's  death  in  1516.  Successive  subsequent  edi- 
tions of  this  work  continued  the  history  to  1559.  Ed- 
ward Hall,  an  under-sheriff  of  London,  wrote  in  1542  a 
chronicle  entitled,  "  The  Union  of  the  Two  Noble  Fam- 
ilies of  Lancaster  and  York,"  bringing  the  narrative 
down  to  1532.  Richard  Grafton,  himself  the  author  of 
two  independent  chronicles  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth, 
printed  in  1548  a  new  edition  of  Hall,  with  a  continua- 
tion to  the  end  of  Henry's  reign.  A  curious  biograph- 
ical work,  "Illustrium  Majoris  Britanniae  Scriptorum 
Summarium,"  was  written  by  John  Bale,  a  reformer, 
afterwards  Bishop  of  Ossory,  in  1548.  The  accuracy 
of  this  writer  may  be  judged  of  by  the  fact,  that,  in  the 
article  on  Chaucer,  he  fixes  the  date  of  the  poet's  death 
in  1450,  and  in  the  list  of  his  works  includes  "  The  Falls 
of  Princes  "  (which  was  by  Lydgate),  and  omits  "  The 
Canterbury  Tales." 

Not  much  of  the  theological  writing  of  the  period 
possessed  more  than  a  passing  value.  Portions  of  it 
are  indirectly  interesting,  as  illustrating  manners  and 
customs,  or  as  tinged  with  the  peculiar  humor  of  the 
writer.  The  sermons  of  Bishop  Latimer,  one  of  the 
leading  reformers,  who  was  burnt  at  the  stake  under 
Mary,  possess  this  twofold  attraction.  Thus,  in  preach- 
ing against  covetousness,  he  complains  of  the  great  rise 
in  rents  and  in  the  price  of  provisions  that  had  taken 
place  in  his  time ;  winding  up  his  recital  of  grievances 
with  the  singular  climax,  "  I  think,  verily,  that,  if  it 
thus  continue,  we  shall  at  length  be  constrained  to  pay 
for  a  pig  a  pound."  The  strange  humor  of  the  man 
breaks  out  in  odd  similes,  in  unexpected  applications 
of  homely  proverbs,  in  illustrations  of  the  great  by  the 
little,  and  the  little  by  the  great.  Cranmer's  works 
have  but  small  literary  value,  though  most  important  — - 


REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING.  71 

especially  the  Letters  —  from  the  historical  point  of 
view.  John  Bale  already  mentioned,  Becon,  Ridley, 
Hooper,  and  Tyndale,  all  composed  theological  tracts, 
chiefly  controversial.  More,  Bishop  Fisher,  and  Pole 
were  the  leading  writers  on  the  Roman  Catholic  side. 
More's  English  works  were  printed  in  a  black-letter 
folio  volume,  in  the  year  1557.  All  except  the  first 
two  —  "A  Life  of  Picas  of  Mirandula,"  and  the  un- 
finished "  History  of  Edward  V."  (or  of  Richard  III., 
as  it  is  called  in  this  edition),  which  has  been  already 
mentioned  —  are  either  of  a  devotional  character,  or 
treat  of  the  chief  points  of  religious  controversy  which 
were  then  under  debate.  His  last  work  (1534),  a 
"Treatise  on  the  Passion,"  remains  unfinished;  and  the 
editor  has  appended  in  a  colophon  these  touching  words  : 
"  Sir  Thomas  More  wrote  no  more  of  this  woorke ;  for 
when  he  had  written  this  farre,  he  was  in  prison  kept 
so  streyght,  that  all  his  bokes  and  penne  and  ynke  and 
paper  was  taken  from  hym,  and  sone  after  was  he  putte 
to  death." 

The  close  of  the  period  was  adorned  by  the  scholar- 
ship and  refined  good  sense  of  Roger  Ascham.  A 
native  of  Yorkshire,  he  was  sent  at  an  early  age  to 
Cambridge,  and,  during  a  lengthened  residence  there, 
diligently  promoted  the  study  of  the  new  learning.  In 
1544  he  wrote  and  dedicated  to  Henry  VIII.  his  "  Tox- 
ophilus,"  a  treatise  on  Archery,  in  which,  for  military 
and  other  reasons,  he  deprecates  the  growing  disuse  of 
that  noble  art.  His  exertions  were  vain :  we  hear,  in- 
deed, of  the  bow  as  still  a  formidable  weapon  at  the 
battle  -of  Pinkie  in  1547 ;  but  from  that  date  it  disap- 
pears from  our  military  history.  In  1550  Ascham  went 
to  Germany  as  secretary  to  Sir  Richard  Morrisine,  who 
was  then  proceeding  as  ambassador  to  the  Imperial 
Court ;  and  in  1553,  while  at  Brussels,  he  wrote,  in  the 


72  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

form  of  a  letter  to  a  friend  in  England,  a  curious 
unfinished  tract,  in  which  the  character  and  career  of 
Maurice  of  Saxony,  whose  successful  enterprise  he  had 
witnessed,  and  of  two  or  three  other  German  princes, 
are  described  with  much  acuteness. 

In  1553  he  was  appointed  Latin  secretary  to  Edward 
VI.,  and  retained  the  office  (the  same  that  Milton  held 
under  Cromwell)  during  the  reign  of  Mary.  On  the 
accession  of  Elizabeth  he  received  the  additional  ap- 
pointment of  reader  in  the  learned  languages  to  the 
queen.  Elizabeth  used  to  take  lessons  from  him  at  a 
stated  hour  each  day.  In  1563  he  wrote  his  "  School- 
master," a  treatise  on  education.  This  work  was  never 
finished,  and  was  printed  by  his  widow  in  1571.  The 
sense  and  acuteness  of  many  of  his  pedagogic  sugges- 
tions have  been  much  dwelt  upon  by  Johnson.  An 
excellent  biography  of  Ascham  may  be  found  in  Hart- 
ley Coleridge's  "  Northern  Worthies." 


ELIZABETHAN  PEKIOD.  73 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ELIZABETHAN  PERIOD. 

1558-1625. 

THIS  is  the  golden  or  Augustan  age  of  English  liter- 
ature. After  its  brilliant  opening  under  Chaucer,  a 
period  of  poverty  and  feebleness  had  continued  for  more 
than  a  hundred  and  fifty  years.  Servile  in  thought  and 
stiff  in  expression,  it  remained  unvivified  by  genius  even 
during  the  first  half  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  ;  and 
Italy  with  her  Ariosto  and  Tasso,  France  with  her 
Marot  and  Rabelais,  Portugal  with  her  Camoens,  and 
even  Spain  with  her  Ercilla,  appeared  to  have  out* 
strippedTEngland  in  the  race  of  fame.  Hence  Sir  Philip 
Sidney  in  his  "  Defence  of  Poesie,"  written  shortly 
before  his  death  in  1586,  after  awarding  a  certain  meed 
of  praise  to  Sackville,  Surrey,  and  Spenser  (whose  first 
work  had  but  lately  appeared),  does  not  "  remember  to 
have  seen  many  more  [English  poets]  that  have  poetical 
sinews  in  them."  But  after  the  year  1580  a  change  be- 
came apparent.  "  England's  Helicon,"  a  poetical  mis- 
cellany (comprising  fugitive  pieces  composed  between 
1580  and  1600)  to  which  Sidney,  Raleigh,  Lodge,  and 
Marlowe  contributed,  is  full  of  genuine  and  native 
beauties.  Spenser  published  the  first  three  books  of 
"  The  Fairie  Queen  "  in  1590  ;  Shakspeare*  began  to  write 
for  the  stage  about  the  year  1586 ;  and  the  "  Essays  "  of 
Francis  Bacon  were  first  published  in  159T;  Raleigh 

7 


74  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

published  his  "  History  of  the  World  "  in  1614 ;  and  the 
first  portion  of  Hooker's  great  work  on  "  Ecclesiastical 
Polity"  appeared  in  1594. 

The  peaceable  and  firmly  settled  state  of  the  country 
under  Elizabeth  was  largely  instrumental  in  the  rise 
of  this  literary  greatness.  Under  the  tyranny  of 
Henry  VIII.,  and  again  in  the  short  reigns  of  Edward 
and  Mary,  nothing  was  settled  or  secure ;  no  calcula- 
tions for  the  future  could  be  made  with  confidence ; 
and  those  who  had  not  to  fear  for  their  lives  and  prop- 
erty were  afraid  to  express  a  free  opinion,  or  act  an 
open,  independent  part.  Doubt,  suspense,  and  mutual 
distrust  paralyzed  all  spontaneous  action.  At  Eliza- 
beth's accession,  the  perplexed  and  intimidated  nation 
was  almost  prepared  to  receive  any  form  of  Christianity 
which  its  government  chose  to  impose  upon  it,  provided 
it  could  obtain  firm  social  peace.  But  various  consid- 
erations concurred  at  the  time  to  discredit  and  render 
unpopular  the  religion  of  the  pope,  and  the  decisions 
of  the  Council  of  Trent :  there  was  the  natural  unea- 
siness of  the  holders  of  the  Church  lands,  confiscated 
in  previous  reigns,  lest,  under  a  Roman  Catholic  regime, 
restitution  should  ultimately  become  the  order  of  the 
day ;  then,  in  aid  of  this  feeling,  came  the  indignation 
and  horror  which  the  revolting  cruelties  of  Mary's  gov- 
ernment had  everywhere  excited ;  lastly,  the  decrees 
of  a  council  which  sat  with  the  fear  of  the  emperor  and 
the  pope  continually  before  its  eyes,  and  in  whose 
deliberations  England  and  the  northern  nations  took 
no  part,  were  naturally  not  regarded  as  representing  in 
all  points  the  final  and  infallible  utterances  of  the  uni- 
versal Church. 

Elizabeth,  whose  sagacity  detected  the  one  paramount 
political  want  of  the  country,  concluded,  in  the  second 
year  of  her  reign,  a  rather  inglorious  peace  with 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  75 

France,  and  devoted  all  her  energies  to  the  work  of 
strengthening  the  power  of  her  government,  passing 
good  laws,  and  improving  the  internal  administration 
of  the  kingdom.  The  consequences  of  the  durable 
internal  peace  thus  established  were  astonishing.  Men 
began  to  trade,  farm,  and  build  with  renewed  vigor ;  a 
great  breadth  of  forest  land  was  reclaimed ;  travellers 
went  forth  to  "discover  islands  far  away,"  and  to  open 
new  outlets  for  commerce.  Wealth,  through  this  mul- 
tiplied activity,  poured  into  the  kingdom ;  and  that 
general  prosperity  was  the  result  which  led  her  subjects 
to  invest  the  sovereign,  under  whom  all  this  was  done, 
with  a  hundred  virtues  and  shining  qualities  not  her 
own.  Of  this  feeling  Shakspeare  became  the  mouth- 
piece and  mirror :  — 

"  She  shall  be  loved  and  feared :  her  own  shall  bless  her. 
Her  foes  shake  like  a  field  of  beaten  corn, 
And  hang  their  heads  with  sorrow.     Good  grows  with  her. 
In  her  days  every  man  shall  eat  in  safety 
Under  his  own  vine,  what  he  plants,  and  sing 
'The  merry  sonys  of  peace  to  all  his  neighbors"  l 

There  is,  indeed,  a  reverse  to  the  picture.  Ireland 
was  devastated  in  this  reign  with  fire  and  sword ;  and 
the  minority  in  England  who  adhered  to  the  ancient 
faith  became  the  victims  of  an  organized  system  of 
persecution  and  plunder.  Open  a  book  by  Cardinal 
Allen,  and  a  scene  of  martyred  priests,  of  harried  and 
plundered  laymen,  of  tortured  consciences  and  bleed- 
ing hearts,  will  blot  out  from  your  view  the  smiling 
images  of  peace  and  plenty  above  portrayed.  The 
mass  of  the  people,  however,  went  quietly  with  the 
government,  believing,  nor  wholly  without  grounds, 
that  to  adhere  to  the  pope  meant  something  more  than 
merely  to  accept  seven  sacraments  instead  of  two ; 
1  Henry  VIII.,  Act  v.  Scene  4. 


76  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

that  it  meant  sympathy  with  Spain,  disloyalty  to  Eng- 
land, and  aid  and  comfort  to  her  enemies  all  over  the 
world. 

Wealth  and  ease  brought  leisure  in  their  train ;  and 
leisure  demanded  entertainment,  not  for  the  body  only, 
but  also  for  the  mind.  The  people,  for  amusement's 
sake,  took  up  the  old  popular  drama,  which  had  come 
down  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  middle  ages  ;  and, 
after  a  process  of  gradual  transformation  and  elabora- 
tion by  inferior  hands,  developed  it,  in  the  mouths  of 
its  Shakspeare,  Johnson,  and  Fletcher,  into  the  world- 
famed  romantic  drama  of  England.  As  the  reading 
class  increased,  so  did  the  number  of  those  who  strove 
to  minister  to  its  desires ;  and  although  the  religious 
convulsions  which  society  had  undergone  had  checked 
the  movement  towards  a  complete  and  profound  appre- 
ciation of  antiquity,  which  had  been  commenced  by 
Colet,  More,  and  Erasmus  in  the  universities,  so  that 
England  could  not  then,  nor  for  centuries  afterwards, 
produce  scholars  in  any  way  comparable  to  those  of 
the  Continent;  yet  the  number  of  translations  which 
were  made  of  ancient  authors  proves  that  there  was  a 
general  taste  for  at  least  a  superficial  learning,  and  a 
very  wide  diffusion  of  it.  Translation  soon  led  to  imi- 
tation, and  to  the  projection  of  new  literary  works  on 
the  purer  principles  of  art  disclosed  in  the  classical 
authors.  The  epics  of  Ariosto  and  Tasso  were  also 
translated,  the  former  by  Harrington,  the  latter  by 
Carew  and  Fairfax  ;  and  the  fact  shows  both  how 
eagerly  the  Italian  literature  was  studied  by  people  of 
education,  and  how  general  must  have  been  the  diffu- 
sion of  an  intellectual  taste.  Spenser  doubtless  framed 
his  allegory  in  emulation  of  the  "  Orlando  "  of  Ariosto  ; 
and  the  form  and  idea  of  Bacon's  "  Essays  "  were  prob- 
ably suggested  to  him  by  the  "  Essays  "  of  Montaigne. 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  77 

Let  us  now  briefly  trace  the  progress,  and  describe 
the  principal  achievements,  in  poetry  and  in  prose 
writing,  during  the  period  under  consideration. 

Poets :    Spenser,    Southwell,    Warner,   Daniel,    Drayton,    Donne, 
Davies,  Chapman,  Marston,  Raleigh. 

Among  the  poets  of  the  period,  Spenser  holds  the 
first  rank.  The  appearance  of  his  "  Shepheard's  Calen- 
der," in  1579,  was  considered  by  his  contemporaries  to 
form  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  English  poetry.  This 
poem  is  dedicated  to  Sidney,  and  in  an  introductory 
epistle,  feigned  to  come  from  a  third  hand,  addressed 
to  his  friend  Gabriel  Harvey,  the  poet  enters  into  some 
curious  particulars  respecting  the  diction  of  his  work. 
He  commences  the  epistle  by  quoting  from  "  the  old 
famous  poet "  Chaucer,  and  also  from  Lydgate,  whom 
he  calls  "  a  worthy  scholar  of  so  excellent  a  master." 
The  Calender  itself,  partly  in  its  metres,  partly  by  an 
express  allusion  in  the  epilogue,  supplies  us  with  evi- 
dence that  he  was  a  diligent  reader  and  admirer  of  the 
"  Vision  of  Piers  Plowman,"  by  Langlaud.  These  three 
were  his  English  models.  He  was  young,  and  full 
of  enthusiasm  ;  and  there  is  little  wonder  if  their  poeti- 
cal diction,  which,  if  obsolete,  was  eminently  striking 
and  picturesque,  commended  itself  to  his  youthful 
taste  more  than  the  composite  English  current  in  his 
own  day.  His  words  are  as  follows :  — 

"  And  first  of  the  wordes  to  speake,  I  graunt  they 
bee  something  hard,  and  of  most  men  unused,  yet  both 
English,  and  also  used  of  most  excellent  authours  and 
most  famous  poets.  In  whom,  whereas  this  our  poet 
hath  bin  much  travailed  and  thoroughly  read,  how 
could  it  be  (as  that  worthy  oratour  sayde),  but  that 
walking  in  the  sunne,  although  for  other  cause  he 


78  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

walked,  yet  needes  he  mought  be  sunburnt ;  and  hav- 
ing the  sound  of  those  auncient  poets  still  ringing  in 
his  eares,  he  mought  needes  in  singing  hit  out  some  of 
their  tunes  ?  But  whether  he  useth  them  by  such  cas- 
ualtie  and  custome,  or  of  set  purpose  and  choise,  as 
thinking  them  fittest  for  such  rusticall  ruclenesse  of 
shepheards,  either  for  that  their  rough  sound  would 
makes  his  rimes  more  ragged  and  rusticall,  or  else 
because  such  old  obsolete  wordes  are  most  used  of* 
country  folke,  sure  I  thinke,  and  thinke  I  thinke  not 
amisse,  that  they  bring  great  grace,  and,  as  one  would 
say,  authoritie  to  the  verse.  .  .  .  But  if  any  will  rashly 
blame  his  purpose  in  choise  of  old  and  unwonted 
wordes,  him  may  I  more  justly  blame  and  condemne, 
or  of  witlesse  headinesse  in  judging,  or  of  heedles 
hardinesse  in  condemning ;  for,  not  marking  the  com- 
passe  of  his  bent,  he  will  judge  of  the  length  of  his 
cast:  for,  in  my  opinion,  it  is  one  especial  praise  of 
many  which  are  due  to  this  poet,  that  he  hath  laboured 
to  restore,  as  to  their  rightfull  heritage,  such  good  and 
naturall  English  wordes  as  have  beene  long  time  out 
of  use,  and  almost  clean  disherited,  which  is  the 
only  cause  that  our  mother  tongue,  which  truly  of 
itself  is  both  full  enough  for  prose  and  stately  enough 
for  verse,  hath  long  time  been  counted  of  most  bare  and 
barren  of  both.  Which  default,  when  as  some  endeav- 
oured to  salve  and  recure,  they  patched  up  the  holes 
with  pieces  and  rags  of  other  languages,  borrowing 
here  of  the  French,  there  of  the  Italian,  everywhere  of 
the  Latin ;  not  weighing  how  ill  those  tongues  accorded 
with  themselves,  but  much  worse  with  ours  ;  so  now 
now  they  have  made  our  English  tongue  a  gallimau- 
frey,1  or  hodge-podge  of  all  other  speeches." 

1  From  the  French  Galimafrte  ;  but  the  origin  of  the  word  is  un- 
known. 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  79 

The  twelve  eclogues  of  "  The  Shepheard's  Calen- 
der "  (Spenser,  relying  on  an  erroneous  etymology, 
spells  the  word  "  aeglogues  ")  are  imitations,  so  far  as 
their  form  is  concerned,  of  the  pastoral  poetry  of  The- 
ocritus and  Virgil.  As  with  these  poets,  the  pastimes, 
loves,  and  disappointments  of  his  shepherds,  Cuddle, 
Colin,  Hobbinol,  and  Piers,  form  the  subject-matter  of 
several  eclogues.  In  others,  more  serious  themes  are 
handled.  In  the  fifth,  seventh,  and  ninth,  for  instance, 
the  abuses  both  of  the  old  and  the  new  Church  are 
discussed,  the  chief  grounds  of  attack  being  the  lazi- 
ness and  covetousness  of  prelates  and  clergy ;  the  fourth 
is  a  panegyrical  ode  on  Queen  Elizabeth ;  in  the  tenth 
is  set  forth  "  the  perfect  pattern  of  a  poet ; "  the 
eleventh  is  an  elegy  on  a  lady  who  is  named  Dido.  In 
the  tenth,  the  poet  anticipates,  as  Milton  afterwards 
did,  the  loftier  strain  to  which  he  felt  that  his  genius 
would  ere  long  impel  him. 

In  1586  Spenser  attained  the  object  of  his  desires, 
being  appointed  secretary  to  the  Lord  Grey  of  Wilton, 
on  his  nomination  to  the  vice-royalty  of  Ireland.  To 
this  stay  in  Ireland,  we  owe  Spenser's  only  prose  work, 
his  "  View  of  the  State  of  Ireland,"  which,  though 
presented  to  the  queen  in  manuscript,  in  1596,  was  for 
political  reasons  held  back  from  publication  till  the 
year  1633.  His  connection  with  great  men  was  now 
established  ;  and  we  cannot  doubt  that  his  great  intel- 
lect and  remarkable  powers  of  application  made  him  a 
most  efficient  public  servant.  Nor  were  his  services 
left  unrewarded.  He  received,  in  1586,  a  grant  of 
Kilcolman  Castle,  in  the  county  of  Cork,  together  with 
some  three  thousand  acres  of  land,  being  part  of  the 
forfeited  estates  of  the  insurgent  Earl  of  Desmond. 
From  this  time  to  his  death,  in  1599,  few  particulars 
are  known  about  him ;  but  he  seems  to  have  resided 


80  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

chiefly  in  Ireland,  and  there  to  have  composed  his 
greatest  work,  "  The  Faerie  Queen."  His  friend  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh,  to  whom  "  The  Faerie  Queen"  is  dedi- 
cated, is  thought  to  have  introduced  him  to  Queen 
Elizabeth,  who  granted  him,  in  1591,  a  pension  of  fifty 
pounds  a  year.  In  1598  occurred  a  rising  of  the  Irish, 
headed  by  O'Neill,  the  famous  Earl  of  Tyrone,  which, 
after  the  defeat  of  the  English  General  Bagnal,  ex- 
tended to  Munster  ;  and  there  was  no  safety  for  English 
settlers  outside  the  walls  of  fortified  places.  Spenser 
had  to  flee  from  his  castle,  which  was  taken  and  burnt 
by  the  insurgents ;  his  infant  child  is  said  to  have  per- 
ished in  the  flames.  In  the  greatest  trouble  and  afflic- 
tion, he  crossed  over  to  England,  and  died  a  few 
months  afterwards  in  a  lodging-house  in  London,  being 
only  in  his  forty-sixth  year. 

Out  of  the  twelve  books  composing,  or  which  ought 
to  compose,  "  The  Faerie  Queen,"  we  have  but  six  in 
an  entire  state,  containing  the  "  Legends  "  of  the  Red 
Cross  Knight,  Sir  Guyon,  Britomartis,  a  lady  knight, 
Cambel  and  Triamond,  Sir  Artegall,  and  Sir  Calidore. 
In  the  characters  and  adventures  of  these  heroic  per- 
sonages, the  virtues  of  holiness,  temperance,  chastity, 
friendship,  justice,  and  courtesy,  are  severally  illus- 
trated and  portrayed.  Of  the  remaining  six  books,  we 
possess,  in  two  cantos  on  Mutability,  a  fragment  of  the 
Legend  on  Constancy.  Whether  any  or  what  other 
portions  of  them  were  ever  written,  is  not  certainly 
known. 

It  would  be  vain  to  attempt,  within  the  limits  here 
prescribed  to  us,  to  do  justice  to  the  variety  and  splen- 
dor of  this  poem,  which,  even  in  its  unfinished  state, 
is  more  than  twice  as  long  as  the  "  Paradise  Lost." 
The  allegorical  form,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  the 
favorite  style  of  the  mediaeval  poets,  is  carefully  pre- 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  81 

served  throughout ;  but  the  interest  of  the  narrative, 
as  full  of  action  and  incident  as  an  old  romance,  and 
the  charm  of  the  free,  vagrant,  open-air  life  described, 
make  one  think  and  care  little  for  the  hidden  meaning. 
"There  is  something,''  said  Pope,  uin  Spenser,  that 
pleases  one  as  strongly  in  one's  old  age  as  it  did  in  one's 
youth.  I  read  'The  Faerie  Queen'  when  I  was  about 
twelve,  with  a  vast  deal  of  delight ;  and  I  think  it  gave 
me  as  much  when  I  read  it  over  about  a  year  or  two 
ago."  l  An  account  in  some  detail  of  a  portion  of  the 
second  book  will  be  found  at  a  later  page.2 

Of  the  many  shorter  poems  left  by  Spenser,  we  shall 
notice  "  The  Ruines  of  Time,"  and  "  The  Teares  of 
the  Muses."  The  first,  dedicated  to  Sydney's  sister  the 
Countess  of  Pembroke,  is,  in  its  main  intention,  a 
lament  over  her  noble  brother's  untimely  death.  The 
marvellous  poetic  energy,  the  perfect  finish,  the  depth 
of  thought,  the  grace,  tenderness,  and  richness  of  this 
poem,  make  it  eminently  illustrative  of  Spenser's 
genius.3  "  The  Teares  of  the  Muses,"  published  in 
1591,  is  an  impassioned  protest  against  the  depraved 
state  of  the  public  taste,  which  at  this  time,  according 
to  Spenser,  led  society  in  general  to  despise  learning, 
nobles  to  sacrifice  true  fame  to  vanity  and  avarice,  and 
authors  to  substitute  servility  and  personality  for  wit. 
Each  Muse  bewails  in  turn  the  miserable  condition  of 
that  particular  branch  of  literary  art  over  which  she 
is  supposed  to  preside0  Melpomene,  the  Muse  of 
Tragedy,  frankly  owns  that  her  occupation  in  England 
is  a  sinecure  :  — 

"  But  I,  that  in  true  tragedies  am  skilled, 
The  flower  of  wit,  find  nought  to  busie  me, 
Therefore  I  mourne,  and  pitifully  mone, 
Because  that  mourning  matter  I  have  none.  " 

1  Spence's  Anecdotes.  2  See  p.  387.  8  See  p.  388. 


82  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

This  might  well  be  said,  when  as  yet  no  better  tragedy 
had  appeared  in  England  than  Sackville's  "  Gorboduc." 
The  complaint  of  Thalia,  the  Muse  of  Comedy,  is 
different.  The  comic  stage  had  flourished,  thanks  to 
one  gifted  '•  gentle  spirit;"  but  he  was  now  keeping 
silence,  and  ribaldry  and  folly  had  possession  of  the 
stage.  Then  comes  the  following  interesting  passage  :  — 

"  All  these,  and  all  that  else  the  comic  stage 

With  seasoned  wit  and  goodly  pleasance  graced, 
By  which  man's  life,  in  his  likest  image, 

Was  limned  forth,  are  wholly  now  defaced; 
And  those  sweet  wits,  which  wont  the  like  to  frame, 
Are  now  despised,  and  made  a  laughing  game. 

And  he,  the  man  whom  Nature's  self  had  made 

To  mock  herselfe,  and  truth  to  imitate, 
With  kindly  counter,  under  mimic  shade, 

Our  pleasant  Willy,  ah !  is  dead  of  late ;  — 
With  whom  all  joy  and  jolly  merriment 
Is  also  deaded  and  in  dolour  drent. 

Instead  thereof,  scoffing  scurrilitie 
And  scornful  folly  with  contempt  is  crept, 

Rolling  in  rymes  of  shameless  ribaudry, 
Without  regard  or  due  decorum  kept; 

Each  idle  wit  at  will  presumes  to  make, 

And  doth  the  learned' s  task  upon  him  take. 

But  that  some  gentle  spirit,  from  whose  pen 
Large  streams  of  honnie  and  sweet  nectar  flowe, 

Scorning  the  boldness  of  such  base-born  men, 
Which  dare  their  follies  forth  so  rashly  throwe, 

Doth  rather  choose  to  sit  in  idle  cell, 

Than  so  himself e  to  mockerie  to  sell." 

In  spite  of  Mr.  Todd's  petty  objections,  I  firmly  believe 
that  here  we  have  Spenser's  tribute  to  the  mighty 
genius  that  had  already  given  "  Two  Gentlemen  of 
Verona,"  "  Love's  Labor's  Lost,"  "  The  Taming  of  the 
Shrew,"  and  probably  one  or  two  other  comedies,  to  the 
English  stage. 


ELIZABETHAN  PERIOD.  83 

In  "  Colin  Clout's  come  home  againe,"  Spenser,  having  returned 
to  his  Irish  home,  describes  the  visit  which  he  paid  to  England  in 
1591,  the  condescension  of  the  queen,  and  the  ways  of  the  court ;  all 
under  the  mask  of  a  conversation  between  shepherds  arid  shepherd- 
esses. The  "Foure  Hymnes "  in  honor  of  earthly  and  heavenly 
love,  earthly  and  heavenly  beauty,  are  written  in  the  Chaucerian 
heptastich;  the  force  and  harmony  of  the  verse  are  wonderful. 
"  Mother  Hubbard's  Tale,"  a  work  of  the  poet's  youth,  is  in  the 
heroic  couplet ;  it  is  in  the  main  a  satire,  first  exposing  with  a  lofty 
scorn  the  hypocrisy  and  self-seeking  of  the  new  clergy,  and  then 
turning  off  to  paint  the  meanness,  cunning,  and  hardheartedness 
which  pervade  the  atmosphere  of  a  court.  It  is  in  this  connection 
that  the  famous  passage  occurs,  thought  to  embody  his  own  experi- 
ence, which  describes  the  miserable  life  of  a  suitor  for  some  favor  at 
court.  "Daphnaida"  and  "Astrophel"  are  elegies,  the  last  upon 
the  death  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney.  The  lovely  nuptial  hymn,  "  Epitha- 
lamion,"  was  written  on  the  occasion  of  his  marriage;  its  metre  and 
movement  are  Pindaric.  "  Muiopotmos  "  is  an  elaborate  poem,  in  the 
fantastic  style,  on  the  fate  of  a  butterfly. 

The  reader  will  observe  that  there  is  a  wide  interval, 
in  respect  of  the  polish  and  modern  air  of  the  diction, 
between  the  productions  of  1579  and  those  of  1590  and 
1591.  One  may  reasonably  conjecture  that  the  perusal 
of  such  a  play  as  "  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,"  had 
led  Spenser  to  modify  considerably  his  youthful  theory, 
giving  the  preference  to  the  obsolete  English  of  a 
former  age. 

The  poems  of  Shakspeare  all  fall  within  the  early 
part  of  his  life  ,  they  were  all  composed  before  1598. 
Writing  in  that  year,  Meres,  in  the  "  Wit's  Treasury," 
says,  "  As  the  soul  of  Euphorbus  was  thought  to  live 
in  Pythagoras,  so  the  sweet  witty  soul  of  Ovid  lives  in 
mellifluous  honey-tongued  Shakspeare.  Witness  his 
4  Venus  and  Adonis,'  his  c  Lucrece,'  his  sugared  sonnets 
among  his  private  friends."  These,  together  with  such 
portions  of  "  The  Passionate  Pilgrim  "  and  the  "  Lover's 
Complaint  "  as  may  have  been  his  genuine  composition, 
constitute  the  whole  of  Shakspeare's  poems,  as  distin- 
guished from  his  plays. 


84  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

The  sonnets,  a  hundred  and  fifty-four  in  number, 
Were  first  published  by  a  bookseller,  Thomas  Thorpe,  in 
1609,  with  a  dedication  to  a  Mr.  W.  H.,  "the  only 
begetter  of  these  ensuing  sonnets."  Yet  there  are  some 
among  them  that  are  evidently  addressed  to  a  woman. 
The  tone  of  self-humiliating  adulation  which  pervades 
those  of  which  Mr.  W.  H.  appears  to  have  been  the 
object,  has  always  been  a  mystery  and  a  trouble  to  the 
admirers  of  Shakspeare,  who  have  been  driven  to  invent 
various  hypotheses  to  account  for  it.  The  subject  is 
fully  discussed  by  Mr.  Knight  in  his  "  Pictorial  Shak- 
speare," and  briefly  handled  by  Hallam  in  the  third 
volume  of  his  "  Literary  History." 

Of  the  minor  poets  of  the  Elizabethan  age,  the  earli- 
est in  date  among  those  that  attained  to  real  distinction 
was  Robert  Southwell J  the  Jesuit,  cruelly  put  to  death 
by  the  Government  in  1595,  for  the  crime  of  having 
been  found  in  England,  endeavoring  to  supply  his 
family  and  friends  with  priestly  ministrations.  His 
poems,  under  the  title  of  "  St.  Peter's  Complaint,  with 
other  Poems,"  appeared  in  the  same  year  that  he  was 
executed,  and  were  many  times  reprinted  during  the 
next  forty  years.  Southwell,  it  seems,  was  the  founder 
of  the  modern  English  style  of  religious  poetry ;  his 
influence  and  example  are  evident  in  the  work  of 
Crashaw,  or  of  Donne,  or  of  Herbert,  or  Waller,  or  any 
of  those  whose  devout  lyrics  were  admired  in  later 
times.  Chaucer  had,  it  is  true,  shown  in  the  prologue 
to  "The  Prioress'  Tale,"  and  in  the  poem  called  his 
A.  B.  C.  in  honor  of  the  blessed  Virgin,  how  much  the 
English  tongue  was  capable  of  in  this  direction.  But  the 
language  was  now  greatly  altered ;  and  Chaucer,  though 
admired,  was  looked  upon  as  no  subject  for  direct 
imitation.  The  poets  of  the  time  were  much  more 

1  See  his  Poetical  Works,  edited  by  the  late  Mr.  Turnbull,  1866. 


ELIZABETHAN  PEEIOD.  85 

solicitous  to  write  like  Ovid  than  like  Isaiah.  We  may 
admit  the  truth,  excluding  only  Spenser  from  its  appli- 
cation, of  Southwell's  general  censure,  that, — 

4  In  lieu  of  solemn  and  devout  matters,  to  which  in 
duty  they  owe  their  abilities,  they  now  busy  themselves 
in  expressing  such  passions  as  serve  only  for  testimonies 
to  what  unworthy  affections  they  have  wedded  their 
wills.  And  because  the  best  course  to  let  them  see  the 
error  of  their  works  is  to  weave  a  new  web  in  their  own 
loom,  I  have  laid  a  few  coarse  threads  together,  to  in- 
vite some  skilfuller  wits  to  go  forward  in  the  same,  or 
to  begin  some  finer  piece,  wherein  it  may  be  seen  how 
well  verse  and  virtue  suit  together.' 

Southwell  was  attacked  by  Hall,  then  an  eager  rising 
young  man  at  Cambridge,  in  the  first  book  of  his  satires, 
called  "  Virgidemiae." 1  Hall's  notion  seems  to  have 
been,  that  verse  was  too  trivial  and  too  worldly  a  garb 
wherein  to  clothe  religious  thought.  But  Marston 
smote  the  smiter,  who  had  railed  — 

"'Gainst  Peter's  teares  and  Marie's  moving  moane," 
And  argued  the  matter  out  rather  forcibly :  — 

"Shall  painims  honor  their  vile  falsed  gods 
With  sprightly  wits,  and  shall  not  we  by  odds 
Far  far  more  strive  with  wit's  best  quintessence 
To  adore  that  sacred  ever-living  Essence  ? 
Hath  not  strong  reason  moved  the  legist's  mind, 
To  say  that  fairest  of  all  nature's  kind 
The  prince  by  his  prerogative  may  claim  ? 
Why  may  not  then  our  soules,  without  thy  blame, 
(Which  is  the  best  thing  that  our  God  did  frame), 
Devote  the  best  part  to  His  sacred  name, 
And  with  due  reverence  and  devotion 
Honor  His  name  with  our  invention  ? 

1  See  p.  408. 


86  HISTOKY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

No ;  poesie  not  fit  for  such  an  action ; 

It  is  defiled  with  superstition  : 

It  honored  Baal ;  therefore  pollute,  pollute, 

Unfit  for  such  a  sacred  institute. 

So  have  I  heard  an  heretick  maintain 

The  church  unholy,  where  Jehovah's  name 

Is  now  adored,  because  he  surely  knows 

Some-times  it  was  defiled  with  Popish  shows,"  &C.1 

In  all  these  religious  and  moral  poems  of  Southwell's, 
there  is  a  liberal  use  of  figure,  trope,  metaphor,  simili- 
tude, and  all  such  poetic  devices ;  but  the  deep,  strong, 
loving  heart  beneath  sanctifies  and  excuses  the  extrava- 
gance, if  any  there  be,  in  the  language. 

William  Warner,  by  profession  an  attorney,  is  said l 
to  have  first  published  his  "  Albion's  England  "  in  1586. 
This  unwieldy  poem  (which  some  read  and  print  in 
long  fourteens,  and  others  in  short  eights  and  sixes  —  it 
makes  not  the  smallest  difference)  is  in  the  style  of  the 
old  rhyming  chronicles ;  beginning  at  the  flood,  it 
traces,  through  twelve  books,  the  history  of  Britain, 
loyally  and  properly  terminating  with  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth.  The  poem  opens  thus :  — 

"  I  tell  of  things  done  long  ago, 

Of  many  things  in  few ; 
And  chiefly  of  this  clyme  of  ours 

The  accidents  pursue. 
Thou  high  director  of  the  same, 

Assist  mine  artlesse  pen, 
To  write  the  gests  of  Britons  stout, 

And  actes  of  English  men." 

Never  was  a  circle  of  more  richly-gifted  spirits  con- 
gregated in  one  city  than  the  company  of  poets  and 
playwrights  gathered  round  the  court  in  London  be- 
tween 1590  and  1610.  From  Kent  came  Samuel  Chap- 
man, the  translator  of  Homer ;  from  Somersetshire  the 

1  Mars  ton's  works  (ed.  J.  O.  Halliwell,  1856).    Satyre  IY. 

2  See  Warton,  vol.  iv.  p.  303,  n. 


ELIZABETHAN  PERIOD.  87 

gentle  and  high-thoughted  Daniel ;  Warwickshire  sent 
Michael  Drayton,  author  of  the  "  Polyolbion,"  and 
William  Shakspeare  ;  Raleigh  —  who  shone  in  poetry  as 
in  every  thing  else  he  attempted  —  came  from  Devon- 
shire ;  London  itself  was  the  birthplace  of  Donne, 
Spenser,  and  Jonson.  All  these  great  men,  there  is 
reason  to  believe,  were  familiarly  acquainted,  and  in 
constant  intercourse  with  one  another ;  but  unhappily 
the  age  produced  no  Boswell;  and  their  table-talk, 
brilliant  as  it  must  have  been,  was  lost  to  posterity. 
One  dim  glimpse  of  one  of  its  phases  has  been  preserved 
in  the  well-known  passage  by  Thomas  Fuller,  writing 
in  1662:  — 

"  Many  were  the  wit  combats  between  him  and  Ben 
Jonson ;  which  two  I  behold  like  a  Spanish  great 
galleon  and  an  English  man-of-war.  Master  Jonson, 
like  the  former,  was  built  far  higher  in  learning ;  solid, 
but  slow  in  his  performances.  Shakspeare,  with  the 
English  man-of-war,  lesser  in  bulk,  but  lighter  in  sail- 
ing, could  turn  with  all  tides,  tack  about,  and  take 
advantage  of  all  winds  by  the  quickness  of  his  wit  and 
invention.  He  died  A.D.  1616,  and  was  buried  at  Strat- 
ford-upon-Avon,  the  town  of  his  nativity." 

The  great  intellectual  activit}^  which  pervaded  the 
English  nation  during  this  period,  the  sanguine  aspiring 
temper  which  prevailed,  the  enthusiastic  looking  for- 
ward to  an  expanding  and  glorious  future  which  filled 
the  hearts  of  most  men,  are  certified  to  us  in  the  works 
of  a  crowd  of  writers  of  the  second  rank,  of  whom, 
though  scarcely  one  did  not  attempt  many  things  for 
which  he  was  ill  qualified,  almost  all  have  left  us  some- 
thing that  is  worth  remembering.  Among  these  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  was  Samuel  Daniel.  He  had 


88  HISTORY  OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

an  ambition  to  write  a  great  epic ;  but  in  this  he  sig- 
nally failed.  His  "  Wars  of  the  Roses,"  a  poem  in  eight 
books,  written  in  the  eight-line  stanza,  —  the  ottava  rima 
of  Italy,  —  is  a  heavy,  lifeless  production,  in  which  there 
are  innumerable  descriptions  of  men's  motives  and 
plans,  but  not  one  description  of  a  battle.  He  had  no 
eye  for  a  stirring  picturesque  scene,  no  art  to  make 
his  characters  distinct  and  natural :  the  poem,  therefore, 
produces  the  effect  of  a  sober  and  judicious  chronicle 
done  into  verse,  in  which  the  Hotspurs,  Mortimers,  and 
Warwicks  are  all  very  much  of  a  piece.  His  eyes  seem 
at  last  to  have  been  opened  to  the  fact  that  he  was  only 
wasting  his  time  ;  for  the  poem  breaks  off  suddenly  just 
before  the  battle  of  Tewkesbury.  But  the  meditative 
temper  of  Daniel  stood  him  in  good  stead  in  other 
attempts.  His  "  Epistle  to  the  Lady  Margaret,  Count- 
ess of  Cumberland,"  is  marked  by  an  elevated  idealism, 
But  his  best  work  is  certainly  the  "  Musophilus."  This 
is  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  between  a  man  of  the  world, 
disposed  to  ridicule  and  contemn  the  pursuits  of  men 
of  letters,  and  the  poet  himself.  The  progressive  and 
hopeful  character  of  the  age  is  well  illustrated  in  the 
fine  passages  in  which  the  poet  foretells  an  approaching 
vast  expansion  of  the  field  of  science,  and  dreams  of 
great  and  unimagined  destinies  (since  then  how  fully 
realized !)  reserved  for  the  English  tongue. 

Michael  Drayton  also  was  no  mean  poet ;  indeed,  Mr. 
Hallam  considered  that  he  had  greater  reach  of  mind 
than  Daniel.  And  this,  nakedly  stated,  is  undoubtedly 
true ;  Drayton  had  more  variety,  more  energy,  more 
knowledge  of  mankind,  and  far  more  liveliness,  than 
Daniel.  His  "  Baron's  Wars  "  are  not  tame  or  prosaic  ; 
they  are  full  of  action  and  strife ;  swords  flash  and 
helmets  rattle  on  every  page.  But  unfortunately, 
Mortimer,  the  hero  of  the  poem,  the  guilty  favorite  of 


ELIZABETHAN  PERIOD.  89 

Edward  II. 's  queen,  is  a  personage  in  whom  we  vainly 
endeavor  to  get  up  an  interest.     There  is  much  pro- 
lixity of  description  in  this  poem,  due,  it  would  seem,  to 
imitation   of   Spenser,    whose    influence   on    Drayton's 
mind  and  style  is  conspicuous.     But  it  is  one  thing  to 
be  prolix  in  a  work  of  pure  imagination,  when  the  poet 
detains  us  thereby  in  that   magic  world  of  unearthly 
beauty  in  which  his  own  spirit   habitually  dwells,  and 
quite  another  thing  to  be  prolix  in  a  poem  founded 
upon  and  closely  following  historical  fact.     When  both 
the    close   and   the  chief   turning-points   of   the   story 
are  known  to  the  reader  beforehand,  the  introduction 
of  fanciful  episodes  and  digressions,  unless   admirably 
managed,  is  apt  to  strike  him  as  laborious  trifling.     If 
Drayton    had    known,    like    Tasso,    how   to   associate 
Clorindas  and  Erminias  with  his  historical  personages, 
he  might  have  been  as  discursive  as  he  pleased.     But 
this  was  "a  grace  beyond  the  reach"  of  his  art;  and 
"  The    Baron's   Wars "    remain,    therefore,     incurably 
uninteresting.      "  England's    Heroical    Epistles,"  pub- 
lished in  1598,  have  a  much  stronger  claim  to  distinc- 
tion.     This   work,    which   is   in   the    heroic    couplet, 
consists  of  twelve  pairs  of  epistles,  after  the  manner  of 
Ovid,  supposed  to  be  exchanged  between  so  many  pairs 
of  royal  or  noble  lovers  :   among  these  are  Henry  II. 
and  Fair  Rosamond,  Owen  Tudor  and  Queen  Catharine, 
Surrey  and  Geraldine,  Guilford  Dudley  and  Lady  Jane 
Grey.     The  style  is  flowing,  fiery,  and  energetic,  and 
withal   extremely  modern ;  it  seems   to   anticipate   the 
"  full  resounding  line  "  of  Dryden,  and  to  rebuke  the 
presumption  of  the  poets  of  the  Stuart  age,  who  chose 
to  say  that  English  had  never  been  properly  and  purely 
written  till  Waller  and  Denham  arose.     "  The  Moon- 
calf "  is  a  strange  satire  —  and  one  of  a  higher  order 
than  the  weak,  uncouth  attempts  of  Hall,  Donne,  and 


90  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Marston  —  on  the  morals  and  manners  of  the  time. 
One  of  the  best  known  of  Drayton's  poems  is  "  The 
Nymphidia."  This  is  in  a  common  romance  metre  (the 
same  which  Chaucer  used  for  his  "  Sir  Thopas  "),  and 
has  for  its  subject  the  amours  of  the  court  of  fairy  land. 
It  is  a  work  of  the  liveliest  fancy,  but  not  of  imagina- 
tion. It  is  interesting  to  find  Don  Quixote  referred  to 
in  a  poem  published  so  soon  after  Cervantes'  death,  — 

"  Men  talk  of  the  adventures  strange 
Of  Don  Quichot  and  of  their  change." 

The  most  celebrated  of  our  author's  works  still  remains 
to  be  noticed,  —  "  The  Polyolbion."  1  This  is  a  poem 
of  enormous  length,  written  in  the  Alexandrine  or 
twelve-syllable  rhyming  couplet,  and  aiming  at  a  com- 
plete topographical  and  antiquarian  delineation  of 
England.  The  literary  merits  of  this  Cyclopean  per- 
formance are  undeniable.  Mr.  Hallam  thinks  that 
"  there  is  probably  no  poem  of  this  kind  in  any  other 
language  comparable  together  in  extent  and  excellence 
to  '  The  Polyolbion  ; '  nor  can  any  one  read  a  portion 
of  it  without  admiration  for  its  learned  and  highly 
gifted  author."  But  the  historian  of  literature  goes  on 
to  say  that  "  perhaps  no  English  poem,  known  so  well 
by  name,  is  so  little  known  beyond  its  name ;  "  and,  on 
the  whole,  the  verdict  of  criticism  pronounces  it  to  be 
one  huge  mistake ;  to  be  a  composition  possessing 
neither  the  unity  of  a  work  of  art,  nor  the  utility  of  a 
topographical  dictionary. 

Of  Drayton's  personal  history  we  know  almost 
nothing  ;  but  when  we  come  to  speak  of  John  Donne, 
the  image  of  a  strange  wayward  life,  actuated  evermore 
by  a  morbid  restlessness  of  the  intellect,  rises  to  our 
thoughts.  This  man,  whose  youthful  "  Epithalamia  " 
i  See  p.  423. 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  91 

are  tainted  by  a  gross  sensuality,  ended  his  career  as 
the  grave  and  learned  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  whose  ser- 
mons furnish  the  text  for  pages  of  admiring  commentary 
to  S.  T.  Coleridge.1  One  fancies  him  a  man  with  a 
high  forehead,  but  false  wavering  eye,  whose  subtlety, 
one  knows,  will  make  any  cause  that  he  takes  up  seem 
for  the  moment  unimpeachable ;  but  of  whose  moral 
genuineness  in  the  different  phases  he  assumes,  of 
whose  sincere  love  of  truth  as  truth,  one  has  incura- 
ble doubts.  As  a  writer,  the  great  popularity  which 
he  enjoyed  in  his  own  day  has  long  since  given  way 
before  the  repulsive  harshness  and  involved  obscurity 
of  his  style.  The  painful  puns,  the  far-fetched  similes, 
the  extravagant  metaphors,  which  in  Shakspeare  occur 
but  as  occasional  blemishes,  form  the  substance  of  the 
poetry  of  Donne  ;  if  they  were  taken  out,  very  little 
would  be  left.  He  is  the  earliest  poet  of  the  fantastic 
or  metaphysical  school,  of  which  we  shall  have  more  to 
say  in  the  next  chapter.  The  term  "  metaphysical,"  first 
applied  to  the  school  by  Johnson,  though  not  inappro- 
priate, is  hardly  distinctive  enough.  It  is  not  inap- 
propriate, because  the  philosophizing  spirit  pervades 
their  works ;  and  it  is  the  activity  of  the  intellect, 
rather  than  that  of  the  emotions,  by  which  they  are 
characterized.  The  mind,  the  nature  of  man,  any 
faculty  of  virtue  appertaining  to  the  mind,  and  even 
any  external  phenomenon,  can  hardly  be  mentioned 
without  being  analyzed,  without  subtle  hair-splitting 
divisions  and  distinctions  being  drawn  out,  which  the 
poet  of  feeling  could  never  stop  to  elaborate.  But  this 
is  equally  true  of  a  great  deal  that  Shakspeare  (espe- 
cially in  his  later  years)  and  even  that  Milton  has 
written,  whom  yet  no  one  ever  thought  of  including 
among  the  metaphysical  poets.  It  is  the  tendency  to 

1  In  the  Literary  Remains,  vol.  iii. 


92  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

conceits,  —  that  is,  to  an  abuse  of  the  imaginative 
faculty,  by  tracing  resemblances  that  are  fantastic,  or 
uncalled  for,  or  unseemly,  —  which  really  distinguishes 
this  school  from  other  schools.  This  point  will  be 
further  illustrated  in  connection  with  the  poetry  of 
Cowley. 

Donne's  poems  are  generally  short ;  they  consist  of 
elegies,  funeral  elegies,  satires,  letters,  divine  poems, 
and  miscellaneous  songs.  Besides  these,  he  wrote 
"Metempsychosis;  or,  the  Progress  of  the  Soul,"  a  poem 
published  in  1601,  "of  which,"  Jonson  told  Drummond 
in  1618,  "  he  now,  since  he  was  made  doctor,  repenteth 
highlie,  and  seeketh  to  destroy  all  his  poems."  In  a 
man  of  so  much  mind,  it  cannot  be  but  that  fine  lines 
and  stanzas  occasionally  relieve  the  mass  of  barbarous 
quaintness.  Take,  for  instance,  the  following  stanza 
from  the  letter  to  Sir  H.  Wot  ton  :  — 

"  Believe  me,  sir,  in  my  youth's  giddiest  days, 
When  to  be  like  the  court  was  a  player's  praise, 
Plays  were  not  so  like  courts,  as  courts  like  plays ; " 

or  this,  from  the  letter  to  R.  Woodward :  — 

"  We  are  but  farmers  of  ourselves,  yet  may, 
If  we  can  stock  ourselves  and  thrive,  up-lay 
Much,  much  good  treasure  'gainst  the  great  rent-day." 

Toward  the  end  of  the  century,  a  serious,  reflecting 
mood  seems  to  have  been  the  prevailing  temper  in  the 
educated  part  of  the  nation  :  our  writers  loved  to  dive 
or  soar  into  abstruse  and  sublime  speculations.  Among 
the  noblest  memorials  of  this  philosophic  bent,  is  "  The 
Nosce  Teipsum  "  of  Sir  John  Davies,  attorney-general 
for  Ireland,  —  a  poem  on  the  soul  of  man,  which  it  aims 
to  prove  immaterial  and  immortal.  It  is  in  the  heroic 
quatrain  or  four-lined  stanza,  with  alternate  rhymes ;  a 
metre  afterwards  employed  by  Davenant,  Dry  den,  and 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  93 

Gray.  The  philosophy  is  Christian  and  Platonic,  as 
opposed  to  the  systems  of  the  materialist  and  epicurean. 
The  versification  is  clear,  sonorous,  and  full  of  dignity. 
There  is  a  passage  at  the  end  of  the  introduction,  which 
curiously  resembles  the  celebrated  meditation  in  Pas- 
cal's "  Pensdes "  upon  the  greatness  and  littleness 
which  are  conjoined  in  man :  — 

"  I  know  ray  body's  of  so  frail  a  kind 

As  force  without,  fevers  within,  can  kill ; 
I  know  the  heavenly  nature  of  my  mind, 
But  'tis  corrupted  both  in  wit  and  will ; 

I  know  my  soul  hath  power  to  know  all  things, 

Yet  is  she  blind  and  ignorant  in  all ; 
I  know  I'm  one  of  Nature's  little  kings, 

Yet  to  the  least  and  vilest  things  am  thrall; 

I  know  my  life's  a  pain,  and  but  a  span ; 

I  know  my  sense  is  mocked  in  every  thing ; 
And,  to  conclude,  I  know  myself  a  man, 

Which  is  a  proud  and  yet  a  wretched  thing." 

George  Chapman  and  John  Marston  belonged  to  the 
same  literary  set,  about  which  unhappily  we  know  so 
little,  that  included  Shakspeare  and  Ben  Jonson.  As  a 
second-rate  dramatist,  Chapman  will  receive  some  notice 
further  on ,  here  a  few  words  must  be  said  about  his 
translation  of  "  The  Iliad,"  which  appeared  about  1601. 
It  is  written  in  the  same  metre  as  Warner's  "  Albion's 
England,"  but  always  printed  in  long  fourteen-sy liable 
rhyming  lines.  Considered  as  exhibiting  imaginative 
power,  and  rapidity  of  movement,  this  version  does  not 
ill  represent  the  original :  the  Elizabethan  poets  well 
understood  how  to  make  words  the  musical  symbols  of 
ideas,  and  were  not  given  to  dawdle  or  falter  on  their 
way.  But  the  simplicity  and  dignity  of  the  original  — 
in  other  words,  the  points  which  constitute  the  unap- 
proached  elevation  of  Homer  in  poetry  and  art  —  these 


94  HISTORY  OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

were  characteristics  which  it  was  beyond  the  reach  of 
Chapman  to  reproduce.1  Still  considering  the  time  at 
which  it  appeared,  and  that  this  was  the  first  complete 
metrical  version  of  "  The  Iliad  "  which  had  appeared 
in  any  modern  language,  it  was  truly  a  surprising  and 
a  gallant  venture,  and  well  typifies  the  intensity  of  force 
with  which  the  English  intellect,  at  this  strange  period, 
was  working  in  every  direction. 

Marston  is  the  author  of  five  separate  satires  (1598), 
besides  three  books  of  satires,  collectively  named  "  The 
Scourge  of  Villanie  "  (1599).  The  separate  satires  are 
not  without  merit,  as  the  passage  given  above  (p.  85), 
which  was  taken  from  the  fourth  of  them,  might  prove. 
The  second  contains  an  attack  on  the  Puritans,  who 
first  appeared  a  few  years  before  this  time  as  a  separate 
party.  A  Puritan  citizen  who  said  grace  for  half  an 
hour,  but  was  a  griping  usurer,  is  thus  satirized  :  — 

"  No  Jew,  no  Turke,  would  use  a  Christian 
So  inhumanely  as  this  Puritan. 


Take  heed,  O  worlde !  take  heed  advisedly, 
Of  these  same  damned  anthropophagi. 
I  had  rather  be  within  an  harpie's  clawes 
Than  trust  myself  in  their  devouring  jawes, 
Who  all  confusion  to  the  world  would  bring 
Under  the  forme  of  their  new  discipline. 

"  The  Scourge  of  Villanie  "  is  much  inferior  to  the 
separate  satires.  The  author  gloats  over  the  immorali- 
ties which  he  pretends  to  scourge,  in  a  manner  which 
forces  one  to  think  of  "  Satan  reproving  sin."  All  is 
invective ;  those  delightful  changes  of  hand,  with  which 
Horace  wanders  back  to  the  scenes  of  his  boyhood,  or 
gives  us  his  opinion  of  Lucilius,  or  sketches  the  poeti- 
cal character,  or  playfully  caricatures  the  Stoic  philoso- 

1  See  the  lectures  of  my  brother,  the  late  professor  of  poetry,  On 
Translating  Homer. 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  95 

phy,  are  not  for  the  imitation  of  such  blundering 
matter-of-fact  satirists  as  Hall,  or  Donne,  or  Marston. 
With  them  satire  is  satire :  they  begin  to  call  names  in 
the  first  line,  and,  with  the  tenacity  of  their  country's 
bull-dogs,  continue  to  worry  their  game  down  to  the 
very  end. 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  the  gay  courtier,  the  gallant 
soldier,  the  discoverer  of  Virginia,  the  father  of 
English  colonization,  the  wily  diplomatist,  the  learned 
historian,  the  charming  poet,  —  as  he  did  every  thing 
else  well  by  the  force  of  that  bright  and  incomparable 
genius  of  his,  so  he  is  the  author  of  a  few  beautiful 
and  thoughtful  poems.1  I  am  persuaded  that  he  wrote 
"  The  Lie ; "  for  I  do  not  believe  that  any  one  then 
living,  except  Shakspeare,  was  so  capable  of  having 
written  it.2 

Dramatists.  —  Origin  of  the  English  Drama;  the  Dramatic  Uni- 
ties ;  Heywood,  Marlowe,  Shakspeare,  Jonson,  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher,  Massinger,  Ford,  Webster,  Marston,  Chapman,  Dek- 
ker,  T.  Heywood,  Rowley,  Tourneur,  Shirley. 

What  we  have  to  say  on  the  development  of  the 
drama  in  this  period  may  best  be  prefaced  by  a  brief 
sketch  of  its  rise  and  progress  in  the  middle  ages. 

Five  distinct  influences  or  tendencies  are  traceable  as 
having  co-operated,  in  various  degrees  and  ways,  in  the 
development  of  the  drama.  These  are  :  1,  the  didactic 
efforts  of  the  clergy ;  2,  mediaeval  philosophy ;  3,  the 
revival  of  ancient  learning  ;  4,  the  influence  of  the  feel- 

1  Printed  at  the  end  of  vol.  viii.  of  the  Oxford  edition  of  Raleigh's 
works. 

2  The  evidence  is  not  conclusive  either  way.    It  certainly  was  not 
written  "  the  night  before  his  execution,"  according  to  the  common 
story,  because  it  had  appeared  in  Davison's  Poetical    Rhapsody  in 
1602;  but  Raleigh's  name  was  given  by  the  printer  as  one  of  the  con- 
tributors to  the  Rhapsody,  and  to  him,  above  all  the  other  contribu- 
tors, in  my  opinion  at  least,  may  the  Lie  most  reasonably  be  assigned. 


96  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

ing  of  nationality ;  5,  the  influence  of  Continental 
literature,  especially  that  of  Italy. 

The  first  rude  attempts  in  this  country  to  revive 
those  theatrical  exhibitions,  which,  in  their  early  and 
glorious  forms,  had  been  involved  in  the  general  de- 
struction of  the  ancient  world,  were  due  to  the  clergy. 
They  arose  out  of  a  perception  that  what  we  see  with 
our  eyes  makes  a  greater  impression  upon  us  than  what 
we  merely  hear  with  our  ears.  It  was  seen  that  many 
events  in  the  life  of  Christ,  as  well  as  in  the  history 
of  the  Christian  Church,  would  easily  admit  of  being 
dramatized,  and  thus  brought  home,  as  it  were,  to  the 
feelings  and  consciences  of  large  bodies  of  men  more 
effectually  than  by  sermons.  As  to  books,  they  of 
course  were,  at  the  time  now  spoken  of,  accessible  only 
to  an  insignificant  minority.  The  early  plays  which 
thus  arose  were  called  "  miracles,"  or  "  miracle-plays," 
because  miraculous  narratives,  taken  from  Scripture  or 
from  the  lives  of  the  saints,  formed  their  chief  subject. 

The  earliest  known  specimens  of  these  miracle-plays, 
according  to  Mr.  Wright,1  were  composed  in  Latin  by 
one  Hilarius,  an  English  monk,  and  a  disciple  of  the 
famous  Abelard,  in  the  early  part  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury. The  subjects  of  these  are  the  raising  of  Lazarus, 
a  miracle  of  St.  Nicholas,  and  the  life  of  Daniel.  Simi- 
lar compositions  in  French  date  from  the  thirteenth 
century ;  but  Mr.  Wright  does  not  believe  that  any 
were  composed  in  English  before  the  fourteenth.  The 
following  passage,  from  Dugdale's  "  Antiquities  of  War- 
wickshire," will  give  a  general  notion  of  the  mode  in 
which  they  were  performed.  It  relates  to  the  famous 
"  Coventry  Mysteries,"  of  which  a  nearly  complete  set 
has  been  preserved,  and  published  by  the  Shakspeare 
Society :  — 

1  Introduction  to  the  Chester  Plays,  published  for  the  Shakspeare 
Society. 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  97 

"  Before  the  suppression  of  the  monasteries,  this  cittye  was  very 
famous  for  the  pageants  that  were  played  therein,  upon  Corpus 
Christ!  day.  These  pageants  were  acted  with  mighty  state  and  rev- 
erence by  the  fryers  of  this  house  (the  Franciscan  monastery  at  Cov- 
entry), and  conteyned  the  story  of  the  New  Testament,  which  was 
composed  into  old  English  rime.  The  theatres  for  the  severall  scenes 
were  very  large  and  high;  and,  being  placed  upon  wheeles,  were 
drawn  to  all  the  eminent  places  of  the  cittye,  for  the  better  advan- 
tage of  the  spectators." 

These  travelling  show-vans  remind  one  of  Thespis, 
the  founder  of  Greek  tragedy,  who  is  said  to  have 
gone  about  in  his  theatrical  cart,  from  town  to  town, 
exhibiting  his  plays.  According  to  older  authorities, 
the  moveable  theatre  itself  was  originally  signified  by 
the  term  "  pageant,"  not  the  piece  performed  in  it. 
"  The  Coventry  Mysteries  "  were  performed  in  Easter 
week.  The  set  which  we  have  of  them  is  divided  into 
forty-two  parts,  or  scenes,  to  each  of  which  its  own 
"  pageant,"  or  moving  theatre,  was  assigned.  Travers- 
ing, by  a  prescribed  round,  the  principal  streets  of  the 
city,  each  pageant  stopped  at  certain  points  along  the 
route ;  and  the  actors  whom  it  contained,  flinging  open 
the  doors,  proceeded  to  perform  the  scenes  allotted  to 
them.  Stage  properties  and  gorgeous  dresses  were  not 
wanting  ;  we  even  meet,  in  the  old  corporation  accounts, 
with  such  items  as  money  advanced  for  the  effective 
exhibition  of  hell-fire.  Two  days  were  occupied  in  the 
performance  of  the  forty-two  scenes ;  and  a  person  stand- 
ing at  any  one  of  the  appointed  halting-places  would 
be  able  to  witness  the  entire  drama.  The  following 
passage  presents  a  fair  sample  of  the  roughness  of  style 
and  homeliness  of  conception  which  characterize  these 
mysteries  throughout ;  it  is  taken  from  the  pageant  of 
"  The  Temptation  :  "  — 

"  Now  if  thou  be  Goddys  Sone  of  might, 

Ryght  down  to  the  erthe  anon  thoii  falle, 
And  save  thisylf  in  every  plyght 
From  harm  and  hurt  and  peinys  alle ; 


98  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE, 

For  it  is  wretyn,  aungelys  bright 

That  ben  in  hevyn,  thy  faderes  halle, 
Thee  to  kepe  bothe  day  and  nyght, 
Xal  be  ful  redy  as  thi  tharalle, 
Hurt  that  thou  non  have  : 
That  thou  stomele  not  ageyn  the  stone, 
And  hurt  thi  fote  as  thou  dost  gon, 
Aungelle  be  ready  all  everychon 
In  weyes  thee  to  save." 

"It  is  wretyn  in  holy  book, 

Thi  Lord  God  thou  shalt  not  tempte ; 
All  things  must  obey  to  Goddys  look, 

Out  of  His  might  is  non  exempt; 
Out  of  tin  cursydness  and  cruel  crook 

By  Godys  grace  man  xal  be  redempt ;  — 
Whan  thou  to  helle,  thi  brennynge  brooke, 
To  endles  peyne  xal  evyn  be  dempt, 
Therein  alwey  to  abyde,"  &c. 

The  philosophy  of  the  middle  ages,  which  we  have 
named  as  the  second  influence  co-operating  to  the  de- 
velopment of  the  drama,  dealt  much  in  abstract  terms, 
and  delighted  in  definitions  and  logical  distinctions. 
Debarred  partly  by  superstition  and  tyranny,  partly  by 
its  own  inexperience,  from  profitable  inquiry  into  nature 
and  her  laws,  the  mind  was  thrown  back  upon  itself,  its 
own  powers,  and  immediate  instruments;  and  the  fruits 
were  an  infinite  number  of  metaphysical  cobwebs,  logi- 
cal subtleties,  and  quips  or  plays  upon  words.  Thus, 
instead  of  proceeding  onward  from  the  dramatic  exhi- 
bition of  scriptural  personages  and  scenes  to  that  of 
real  life  and  character,  the  mediaeval  playwrights  per- 
versely went  backwards,  and  refined  away  the  scriptural 
personages  into  mere  moral  abstractions.  Thus,  instead 
of  the  Jonathan  and  Satan  of  the  mystery,  we  come  to 
the  Friendship  and  the  Vice  of  the  moral  play,  or  mo- 
rality, —  a  dramatic  form  which  seems  to  have  become 
popular  in  this  country  about  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  How  far  this  folly  would  have  gone  it  is  im- 


ELIZABETHAN  PEKIOD.  99 

possible  to  say:  fortunately  it  was  cut  short  by  the 
third  influence  mentioned,  —  the  revival  of  ancient 
learning.  When  the  plays  of  Terence  and  Sophocles, 
nay,  even  those  of  Seneca,  became  generally  known, 
none  but  a  pedant  or  a  dunce  could  put  up  with  the 
insufferable  dulness  of  a  moral  play. 

The  earliest  known  English  comedy,  "  Ralph  Roister 
Doister,"  bears  plain  marks  of  the  power  of  this  new 
influence.  Its  author  was  Nicholas  Udall,  master  of 
Eton  College.  The  exact  date  of  its  publication  is  un- 
known; but  it  was  certainly  composed  before  1551.  It 
is  written  in  jingling  rhyme,  the  lines  being  usually  of 
twelve  syllables,  though  frequently  shorter.  It  is  di- 
vided into  acts  and  scenes,  like  those  plays  of  Plautus 
and  Terence  of  which  it  is  a  professed  imitation.  Critics 
have  spoken  of  its  liveliness  and  wit,  of  the  clever  man- 
agement of  the  plot,  and  other  good  qualities ;  but  the 
style  is  too  utterly  barbarous  to  admit  of  its  interesting 
any  one  but  a  literary  antiquarian.  "  Gammer  Gurton's 
Needle "  and  "  Misogonus,"  both  probably  composed 
before  1560,  are  comedies  of  the  same  kind.  Our 
dramatists  at  this  period  had  sufficient  sense  to  admire 
the  ancients,  but  not  enough  to  make  them  despise 
themselves  and  their  own  productions.  The  more  flexi- 
ble French  genius  had  already  begun  to  follow  the 
advice  of  the  poet  Du  Bellay,  who,  writing  in  the  year 
1548,  says,  "  Translation  is  not  a  sufficient  means  to 
elevate  our  vernacular  speech  to  the  level  of  the  most 
famous  languages.  What  must  we  do,  then  ?  Imitate  ! 
imitate  the  Romans  as  they  imitated  the  Greeks,  as 
Cicero  imitated  Demosthenes,  and  Virgil  Homer.  We 
must  transform  the  best  authors  into  ourselves,  and, 
after  having  digested  them,  convert  them  into  blood 
and  nutriment."  Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  the  sturdy 
English  independence  brought  with  it  countervailing 


100  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

advantages  :  but  for  it,  the  Elizabethan  literature,  while 
gaining  perhaps  in  polish  and  correctness,  would  have 
lost  tenfold  more  in  the  free  play  of  thought,  in  exu- 
berance and  boldness  of  conception,  and  in  that  display 
of  creative  genius  which  invents  new  forms  for  modern 
wants. 

Before  the  appearance  of  comedies  properly  so  called,  a  sort  of 
intermediate  style  was  introduced  by  John  Heywood,  jester  and 
musician  at  the  court  of  Henry  VIII.  He  produced  several  short 
plays  which  he  called  interludes.  The  name  had  been  in  use  for 
some  time,  and  merely  signified  a  dramatic  piece  performed  in  the 
intervals  of  a  banquet,  court  pageant,  or  other  festivity.  Moral 
plays  are  thus  frequently  described  by  their  authors  as  interludes. 
But  the  novel  character  of  Heywood's  plays,  and  the  popularity  which 
they  obtained,  caused  the  name  of  interlude  to  be,  after  his  time, 
reserved  for  plays  of  similar  aim  and  construction.  The  novelty  con- 
sisted in  this :  that  whereas,  in  a  moral  play,  the  characters  are  per- 
sonified qualities  (Felicity,  False  Semblance,  Youth,  &c.),  in  an  inter- 
terlude  they  are  true  persons,  but  not  yet  individuals ;  they  are  the 
representatives  of  classes.  Thus,  in  Heywood's  clever  interlude  of 
"The  Four  P's,"  the  leading  characters  are,  the  Peddler,  the  Palmer, 
the  Pardoner,  and  the  Poticary.  In  another,  one  of  the  characters  is 
even  named;  this  is  "A  Mery  Play  betwene  the  Pardonere  and  the 
Frere,  the  Curate  and  Neighbour  Pratte." 

No  comedies  worthy  of  mention  appeared  after  the 
time  of  Udall  and  Still,  for  more  than  twenty  years,  — 
not  till  the  time  of  Greene,  Peele,  and  Marlowe,  the 
immediate  predecessors  and  contemporaries  of  Shak- 
speare. 

The  earliest  known  tragedy  was  brought  upon  the 
stage  in  1562,  under  the  title  of  "  Gorboduc,"  or  "  Fer- 
rex  and  Porrex."  It  was  jointly  composed  by  Sack- 
ville,  afterwards  Lord  Buckhurst,  and  Thomas  Norton, 
a  Puritan  lawyer.  It  is  the  first  English  drama  of  any 
kind  written  in  blank  verse.  The  subject,  like  that  of 
Shakspeare's  "  King  Lear,"  is  taken  from  the  fabulous 
British  annals,  originally  compiled  by  Geoffrey  of  Mon- 
mouth  in  the  twelfth  century,  and  innocently  copied 


ELIZABETHAN  PEEIOD.  101 

into  the  histories  of  most  of  the  chroniclers  down  tc 
the  time  of  Milton.  The  writers  were  educated  men  ; 
and  it  seems  probable  that  they  chose  an  episode  taken 
from  the  legendary  history  of  Britain  as  the  subject  of 
their  tragedy,  in  imitation  of  the  Greek  tragedians, 
whose  constant  storehouse  of  materials  was  the  mythi- 
cal traditions  of  Greece.  Similarly  Milton  thought  of 
writing  an  epic  poem  on  the  legend  of  Arthur  and  his 
knights.  But  this  play  bears  witness  also  to  the  influ- 
ence of  the  fourth  tendency  noted  above,  —  the  desire 
to  deepen  and  justify  the  pride  of  English  nationality. 
The  play  is  full  of  allusions  to  the  present  state  of 
things,  enforcing  the  advantages  of  peace  and  settled 
government,  the  evils  of  popular  risings  and  a  disputed 
succession.  The  same  design  of  illustrating  the  pres- 
ent by  the  past  is  apparent  in  an  old  play  written  so 
far  back  as  the  last  years  of  Henry  VIII.,  the  "  Kynge 
Johan  "  of  Bishop  Bale,  a  piece  holding  an  intermedi- 
ate position  between  the  moral  play  and  the  regular 
drama,  some  of  the  situations  and  ideas  of  which  are, 
possibly  through  the  medium  of  a  later  play  on  the 
same  subject  published  in  1591,  worked  up  in  the 
"  King  John  "  of  Shakspeare.  But  our  first  truly 
historical  play  seems  to  have  been  "  The  Life  of  Ed- 
ward II.,"  by  Christopher  Marlowe.  Mr.  Hallam  calls 
it  "  by  far  the  best,  after  [the  historical  plays  of] 
Shakspeare."  Marlowe  was  a  man  of  great  powers  ;  his 
"  mighty  line  "  was  praised  by  Ben  Jonson  :  but  his 
wild  and  dissolute  habits  brought  his  life  to  a  premature 
close  through  a  tavern  brawl  in  1593.  His  "  Tragedy 
of  Dr.  Faustus  "  has  attracted  attention,  of  late  years, 
owing  to  the  celebrity  with  which  Goethe's  great  work 
has  invested  the  old  story.  It  has  striking  and  elo- 
quent passages  ;  but  bombast  and  bad  taste  overspread 
it  to  such  a  degree  as  quite  to  spoil  the  general  effect. 


102  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH   LITEKATUEE. 

The  fondness  for  seeing  the  past  history  of  the  nation 
exhibited  in  dramatic  show  conduced,  more  than  any 
other  single  cause,  to  that  constant  neglect  of  the  dra- 
matic "  unities  "  for  which  our  English  play- writers  are 
conspicuous.  This,  therefore,  is  the  place  to  explain 
what  those  unities  were,  and  how  our  early  tragedians 
came  to  violate  them. 

Aristotle,  in  his  "  Treatise  on  Poetry,"  collects  from 
the  practice  of  the  Greek  dramatists  certain  rules  of 
art,  as  necessary  to  be  observed  in  order  that  any 
tragedy  may  have  its  full  effect  upon  the  audience. 
The  chief  of  these  relates  to  the  action  represented, 
which,  he  says,  must  be  one,  complete,  and  important. 
This  rule  has  been  called  the  unity  of  action.  He 
also  says  that  tragedy  "  for  the  most  part  endeavors  to 
conclude  itself  within  one  revolution  of  the  sun,  or 
nearly  so."  This  rule,  limiting  the  time  during  which 
the  action  represented  takes  place  to  twenty-four  hours, 
or  thereabouts,  has  been  called  the  unity  of  time.  A 
third  rule,  not  expressly  mentioned  by  Aristotle,  but 
nearly  always  observed  by  the  Greek  tragedians,  re- 
quires that  the  entire  action  shall  be  transacted  in  the 
same  locality ;  this  is  called  the  unity  of  place.  These 
three  rules  were  carefully  observed  by  the  first  Italian 
tragedians,  Rucellai  and  Trissino ;  and  also  in  France, 
when  the  drama  took  root  there.  In  Spain  and  in 
England  they  were  neglected,  and  apparently  for  the 
same  reason,  —  that  both  peoples  were  fervently  na- 
tional, and  intensely  self-conscious  ;  and  therefore,  in 
order  to  gratify  them,  the  drama  tended  to  assume  the 
historic  form,  —  a  form  which  necessitates  the  violation 
of  the  unities.1  Marlowe,  in  his  historical  tragedy  of 
"  Edward  II.,"  and  Shakspeare,  in  his  ten  historical 
plays,  proceed  upon  this  principle.  Shakspeare,  how- 

1  See  Critical  Section,  chap.  L,  "Dramatic  Poetry." 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  103 

ever,  when  he  wrote  to  gratify  his  own  taste  rather 
than  that  of  the  public,  so  far  showed  his  recognition 
of  the  soundness  of  the  old  classical  rules,  that  in  the 
best  of  his  tragedies  he  carefully  observed  the  unity  of 
action,  although  he  judged  it  expedient,  perhaps  with 
reference  partly  to  the  coarser  perceptions  of  his  audi- 
ence, to  sacrifice  those  lesser  congruities  of  place  and 
time  which  the  sensitive  Athenian  taste  demanded,  to 
the  requirements  of  a  wider,  though  looser,  conception 
of  the  ends  of  dramatic  art. 

Marlowe,  Peele,  Greene,  Nash,  and  Lodge,  were  all 
young  men  together,  and  all  writing  for  the  London 
stage  between  the  years  1585  and  1593.  They  had  all 
received  a  university  education,  and  as  brother  wits 
and  boon  companions  were  on  terms  of  the  freest  inti- 
macy. But  an  interloper,  an  upstart,  a  mere  provincial 
who  had  never  seen  the  inside  of  a  college  ;  worse  than 
all,  a  player,  who  ought  to  have  deemed  it  sufficient 
honor  to  perform  the  plays  which  these  choice  spirits 
condescended  to  write,  —  had  come  up  from  Warwick- 
shire to  confound  them  all.  The  grievance  is  thus 
alluded  to  by  Greene,  in  a  curious  pamphlet  called  "  A 
Groat's  Worth  of  Wit,"  written  just  before  his  death 
in  1593.  Addressing  three  of  his  brother  dramatists, 
supposed  to  be  Marlowe,  Lodge,  and  Peele,  he  says,  — 
"  Is  it  not  strange  that  I  to  whom  they  [the  players] 
all  have  been  beholding,  is  it  not  like  that  you  to 
whom  they  all  have  been  beholding,  shall,  were  ye  in 
that  case  that  I  am  now,  be  both  of  them  at  once  for- 
saken ?  Yes  :  trust  them  not ;  for  there  is  an  upstart 
crow,  beautified  with  our  feathers,  that,  with  his  tiger's 
heart  wrapped  in  a  player's  hide,  supposes  he  is  as  well 
able  to  bombast  out  a  blank  verse  as  the  best  of  you  ; 
and,  being  an  absolute  Johannes  factotum,  is,  in  his  own 
conceit,  the  only  Shake-scene  in  a  country"  We  shall 


104  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

have  occasion  to  examine  into  the  meaning  of  Greene's 
charge  presently.  From  this  passage,  besides  other 
slight  indications  pointing  the  same  way,  it  may  be  con- 
cluded that  Shakspeare  (for  no  one  has  ever  doubted 
that  the  allusion  is  aimed  at  him)  had  begun  to  employ 
himself  in  dramatic  writing  before  1592,  that  he  moved 
in  a  different  circle  in  society  from  that  which  was 
formed  by  the  educated  wits  and  literati  of  London, 
and  that  he  had  been  busy  in  adapting  other  men's 
plays  for  production  at  his  own  theatre. 

Every  one  knows  how  few  and  meagre  are  the  known 
facts  of  Shakspeare's  biography.  "  The  two  greatest 
names  in  poetry,"  says  Mr.  Hallam,  "  are  to  us  little 
more  than  names.  If  we  are  not  yet  come  to  question 
his  unity,  as  we  do  that  of  '  the  blind  old  man  of  Scio's 
rocky  isle,'  an  improvement  in  critical  acuteness  doubt- 
less reserved  for  a  distant  posterity,  we  as  little  feel  the 
power  of  identifying  the  young  man  who  came  up  from 
Stratford,  was  afterwards  an  indifferent  player  in  a 
London  theatre,  and  retired  to  his  native  place  in  mid- 
dle life,  with  the  author  of  '  Macbeth  '  and  4  Lear,' 
as  we  can  give  a  distinct  historic  personality  to  Homer. 
...  It  is  not  the  register  of  his  baptism,  or  the  draft 
of  his  will,  or  the  orthography  of  his  name,  that  we 
seek.  No  letter  of  his  writing,  no  record  of  his  con- 
versation, no  character  of  him  drawn  with  any  fulness 
by  a  contemporary,  has  been  produced." 

Such  as  they  are,  however,  the  chief  of  those  partic- 
ulars which  untiring  research  has  either  firmly  estab- 
lished, or  placed  on  the  level  of  strong  probabilities, 
must  here  be  related.  William  Shakspeare  was  born  at 
Stratford-upon-Avon,  in  April,  1564.  He  received,  as 
far  as  we  know,  no  better  education  than  the  grammar 
school  of  the  place  afforded ;  and,  soon  after  he  had 
reached  his  twentieth  year,  was  drawn  up  to  London, 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  105 

probably  through  the  influence  of  his  friend  Richard 
Burbage,  a  leading  actor  of  the  day,  and  himself  a  War- 
wickshire man.  Shakspeare's  name  stands  twelfth  in  a. 
list  still  extant,  of  the  date  of  1589,  containing  the  names 
of  sixteen  players  who  were  at  the  same  time  joint  pro> 
prietors  of  the  Blackfriars  Theatre.  In  a  similar  list, 
dated  in  1596,  he  stands  fourth,  having  evidently  in 
the  interval  attained  to  a  much  more  important  position 
in  the  partnership.  At  this  latter  date  the  company 
were  in  possession,  not  only  of  their  old  theatre  at  the 
Blackfriars,  but  of  a  new  one  by  the  river-side,  called 
the  Globe  Theatre,  which  they  used  for  summer  per- 
formances. Already,  before  1592,  besides  altering  old 
plays,  Shakspeare  had  written  several  independent 
dramas,  to  be  performed  by  his  company.  In  1598  — 
as  we  learn  from  a  passage  in  "  Meres'  Wit's  Treasury  " 
published  in  that  year  —  at  least  twelve  of  his  plays 
had  appeared  ;  namely,  the  comedies  of  "  The  Two  Gen- 
tlemen of  Verona,"  "  Love's  Labor's  Lost,"  "  The  Com- 
edy of  Errors,"  "  Love's  Labor  Won  "  (supposed  to  be 
"  All's  Well  that  Ends  Well"),  "  Midsummer  Night's 
Dream,"  and  "  The  Merchant  of  Venice ;  "  the  histori- 
cal plays  of  Richard  II.,  Richard  III.,  Henry  IV.,  and 
King  John  ;  and  the  tragedies  of  "  Titus  Andronicus  " 
and  "  Romeo  and  Juliet."  "  Othello  "  first  appeared  in 
1602 ;  "  Hamlet,"  in  its  original  shape,  was  brought 
out  in  1603  ;  "King  Lear,"  in  1608.  "  Macbeth"  was 
produced  some  time  between  the  years  1603  and  1610. 
Shakspeare  prospered  in  his  profession ;  he  amassed  a 
considerable  fortune,  which  we  find  him  to  have  invest- 
ed in  houses  and  lands  at  Stratford,  whither  he  retired 
to  live  at  his  ease  some  years  before  his  death  in  1616. 
During  this  retirement,  he  probably  wrote  the  three 
Roman  plays,  "  Julius  Caesar,"  "  Antony  and  Cleopatra," 
and  "  Coriolanus." 


106  HISTOEY   OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Out  of  thirty-five  plays  which  Shakspeare  has  left  us 
(excluding  "  Titus  Andronicus  "  and  "  Pericles  Prince 
of  Tyre,"  and  waiving  the  difficult  question  as  to  his 
connection  with  the  three  parts  of  "  Henry  VI.),"  four- 
teen are  comedies,  eleven  tragedies,  and  ten  histories. 
With  reference  to  Shakspeare,  the  term  "  comedy " 
simply  denotes  a  play  that  ends  happily  ;  but  it  may 
have  abounded,  in  the  development  of  the  plot,  with 
serious  and  pathetic  incidents.  This  intermediate  style 
was  afterwards  called  by  Fletcher  "tragi-comedy,"  a 
term  which  he  appropriated  to  those  plays  in  which  the 
final  issue  of  the  plot  is  for  good,  yet  in  which,  while 
that  issue  remains  in  suspense,  some  of  the  principal 
personages  are  brought  so  near  to  destruction  that  the 
true  tragic  interest  is  excited.  Eighteen  of  the  plays 
of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  answer  to  this  description  ; 
which  would  also  obviously  apply  to  "  Measure  for 
Measure,"  "  The  Merchant  of  Venice,"  or  "  Winter's 
Tale." 

The  influence  of  the  fifth  developing  cause  men- 
tioned above,  viz.,  the  study  of  Continental  literature, 
is  apparent  at  once  when  we  turn  to  Shakspeare's 
comedies.  Ariosto's  two  comedies,  the  "  Cassaria " 
and  the  "  Suppositi,"  first  acted  in  1512,  were,  like 
our  own  "  Roister  Doister,"  formed  upon  ancient 
models  ;  but  they  were  written  in  flowing  blank  verse, 
and  in  a  language  already  polished  and  beautiful, — cir- 
cumstances which,  apart  from  the  genius  of  the  writer, 
would  go  far  to  account  for  the  great  popularity  which 
they  obtained.  They  were  translated  into  English  by 
George  Gascoyne  ;  and  it  is  probable  that  to  these  and 
other  Italian  comedies  Shakspeare  owed  much.  That 
he  was  well  read  in  Italian  tales  is  certain,  since  from 
the  plots  no  fewer  than  six  of  his  comedies  were  derived. 
One,  "Love's  Labor's  Lost,"  comes  presumably  from  a 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  107 

French  source ;  and  one,  "  The  Two  Gentlemen  of 
Verona,"  from  a  Spanish  source.  But,  after  all,  it  is  a 
matter  of  little  consequence,  from  what  source  his  mate- 
rials were  derived.  Whether  they  were  coarse  or  fine, 
his  transforming  touch  changed  them  all  alike  into 
gold ;  and  so  infinitely  superior  are  the  very  earliest  in 
date  of  his  comedies  to  any  that  had  appeared  before, 
that  one  might  truly  call  all  such  pieces,  even  as  "  The 
Taming  of  a  Shrew,"4  and  Greene's  "Orlando  Furi- 
oso,"  —  much  more,  of  course,  the  performances  of 
Udall  and  Still, — mere  rough  drafts,  or  attempts  at  the 
comic  style,  and  say  that  English  comedy  really  com- 
mences with  Shakspeare.  Nothing  strikes  one  more 
than  the  comparative  simplicity  and  purity  of  style 
even  in  his  early  plays.  The  dramatists  of  the  day 
were  mostly  men  who  had  received  a  university  educa- 
tion ;  and  they  seem  to  have  thought,  that,  unless  they 
gave  abundant  proof  of  their  college-learning  in  their 
plays,  people  would  hold  them  cheap.  So,  with  the 
grossest  disregard  to  dramatic  fitness,  the  speeches  of 
nearly  all  their  characters  are  stuffed  full  with  high- 
flown  classical  allusions,  introducing  us  to  all  the  gods 
of  Olympus,  and  all  the  principal  places  of  the  world 
as  known  to  the  ancients.  A  few  lines  from  the  old 
"  Taming  of  a  Shrew "  may  serve  by  way  of  illus- 
tration :  — 

"  Sweet  Kate,  them  lovelier  than  Diana's  purple  robe, 
Whiter  than  are  the  snowy  Apennines, 
Or  icy  hair  that  grows  on  Boreas'  chin. 
Father,  I  swear  by  Ibis'  golden  beak, 
More  fair  and  radiant  is  my  bonny  Kate 
Than  silver  Xanthus,  when  he  doth  embrace 
The  ruddy  Simois  at  Ida's  feet,"  &c. 

*  Upon  this  old  play,  which  Mr.  Knight  conjectures  to  have  been 
the  work  of  Greene,  Shakspeare  modelled  his  "Taming  of  the  Shrew." 


108  HISTOKY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

The  speaker  in  these  lines  is  Ferando,  the  character 
in  the  old  play  corresponding  to  Shakspeare's  Petru- 
chio.  If  we  turn  to  Shakspeare's  play,  we  see  that  he, 
too,  makes  Petruchio  compare  Kate  to  Diana  ;  but  mark 
the  difference :  — 

Pet.  Did  ever  Dian  so  become  a  grove 

As  Kate  this  chamber  with  her  princely  gait  ? 
Oh !  be  thou  Dian,  and  let  her  be  Kate ; 
And  then  let  Kate  be  chaste,  and  Dian  sportful. 
Kate.  Where  did  you  study  all  this  goodly  speech  ? 

Pet.  It  is  extempore,  from  my  mother  wit. 

This  is  no  more  than  might  be  naturally  and  fitly  put 
in  the  mouth  of  the  eccentric  gentleman  from  Verona, 
while  the  former  passage  is  mere  rant  and  fustian. 
However,  it  cannot  truthfully  be  denied  that  Shak- 
speare,  too,  falls  sometimes  into  extravagant  and  dra- 
matically inappropriate  language,  though  it  is  generally 
in  the  shape  of  quips,  quibbles,  puns,  and  metaphysi- 
cal refinements,  arising  out  of  the  very  exuberance  of 
his  intellectual  ^energy,  that  he  sins  against  literary  sim- 
plicity ;  very  seldom  indeed  by  decking  out  his  verse 
with  proper  names,  in  the  fashion  above  described.  As 
to  the  surpassing  grace,  art,  and  truth  to  nature,  which 
these  comedies  in  various  degrees  exhibit,  the  limits  of 
this  work  would  be  soon  outstepped  if  we  were  to  dwell 
on  them. 

Among  the  eleven  tragedies  are  included  some  of 
the  brightest  and  most  wonderful  achievements  of  the 
human  intellect.  In  "  Hamlet,"  with  its  fearful  back- 
ground of  guilt,  and  lingering  yet  foreshadowed  retri- 
bution, we  see  the  tragic  results  which  follow  from  — 
in  the  words  of  Goethe  —  "a  great  action  being  laid 
upon  a  soul  unfit  for  its  performance ;  "  the  unfitness 
consisting,  according  to  Coleridge,  in  the  want  of  a 
due  balance  "  between  the  impressions  from  outward 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  109 

objects,  and  the  inward  operations  of  the  intellect;  for, 
if  there  be  an  overbalance  in  the  contemplative  faculty, 
man  thereby  becomes  the  creature  of  mere  meditation, 
and  loses  his  natural  power  of  action."  In  "  Macbeth," 
on  the  other  hand,  the  action  of  the  drama  proceeds 
with  a  breathless  rapidity.  The  first  crime,  engendered 
by  that  "  vaulting  ambition  which  doth  o'erleap  itself," 
necessitates  the  commission  rof  others  to  avert  the 
natural  consequences  of  the  first.  A  large  part  of  a 
life  is  presented  to  our  eyes  in  the  light  of  one  great, 
gilded,  successful  crime,  until  at  last  it  topples  over, 
and  is  quenched  with  the  suddenness  of  an  expiring 
rocket.  In  "  King  Lear,"  with  its  ever-thickening 
gloom  and  deepening  sorrows,  we  see  the  tragic  fate 
which,  as  the  world  of  man  is  constituted,  too  often 
waits  on  folly  no  less  than  on  guilt,  and  involves  the 
innocent  alike  with  the  guilty  in  the  train  of  terrible 
consequences.  In  "  Othello,"  the  drama  opens  with 
all  the  elements  of  happiness  ;  manly  courage,  beauty, 
truth,  devoted  love,  are  met  together  in  the  pair  who 
fought  against  all  the  powers  of  social  prejudice  in 
order  to  become  one,  and  have  conquered :  yet  all  is 
marred  by  the  fiendish  wickedness  of  one  man,  who 
abuses  the  resources  of  a  powerful  intellect  to  practise 
on  the  open  and  impulsive  nature  of  Othello,  until  he 
crushes,  in  an  access  of  volcanic  passion,  the  jewel  which 
an  instant  after  he  would  give  the  whole  world  to 
restore.  In  "  Romeo  and  Juliet,"  all  that  is  beautiful 
and  all  that  is  excessive  are  brought  together.  The 
loveliness  of  the  Italian  sky,  the  youthful  grace  of  the 
lovers,  the  fair  palaces  and  moonlit  gardens  of  Verona, 
the  hereditary  and  unforgiving  hatred  of  the  two  noble 
houses,  the  whirlwind  of  passionate  love  which  unites 
their  two  last  surviving  scions  in  the  inextricable  bond 
of  an  affection  stronger  than  all  the  hatreds  of  their 
10 


110  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

ancestors,  their  final  union  in  the  tomb  beyond  the 
reach  of  severance  by  angry  fathers  or  the  chances  of 
time  —  these  are  the  materials  of  a  drama  which  for 
pure  literary  beauty  stands,  perhaps,  unsurpassed 
among  intellectual  creations.  It  is  not,  however,  our 
purpose  to  attempt  any  thing  like  a  general  critical 
analysis  of  these,  or  any  of  Shakspeare's  pla^s ;  nor, 
indeed,  is  it  necessary.  Genius  furnished  the  text, 
and  men  of  the  greatest  intellectual  gifts  have  supplied 
the  commentary.  The  reader  will  thank  us  for  refer- 
ring him  to  their  works,  rather  than  attempting  to 
substitute  an  inferior  article  of  our  own.1 

In  the  literatures  of  Greece  and  Rome,  it  is  not  to 
the  dramatic,  but  to  the  epic  poetry,  that  we  must  look 
for  the  exhibition  of  the  peculiar  pride  and  spirit  of 
either  nationality.  Thus  in  the  "  Iliad,"  as  Mr.  Glad- 
stone has  eloquently  shown,2  the  Greek  character  and 
the  Greek  religion  are  forcibly  and  favorably  con- 
trasted with  those  of  Asia ;  and  the  "  JEneid "  is 
pervaded,  as  if  by  a  perpetual  under-song,  by  a  con- 
stant stream  of  allusion  to  the  greatness  of  Rome.  In 
English  poetry  this  spirit  of  nationality  has  sought  its 
expression  in  the  historical  drama,  and  pre-eminently 
in  the  historical  plays  of  Shakspeare.  It  is  a  noble 
series;  commencing,  in  the  chronological  order,  with 
"King  John,"  and  ending  with  "Henry  VIII.;" 
omitting,  however,  the  reigns  of  Henry  III.,  the  four 
Edwards,  and  Henry  VII.  The  manful,  proud  spirit 
of  English  freedom  is  continually  making  itself  visible  ; 
and,  though  it  has  been  truly  said  that  Shakspeare  in 

1  The  works  particularly  referred  to  as  most  generally  accessible 
are,  Coleridge's    Literary  Remains,  Augustus    Schlegel's  Dramatic 
Literature,  the  chapters  on  Hamlet  in  Goethe's  Wilhelm  Meister,  and 
the  works  of  Gervinus,  Guizot,  and  Victor  Hugo. 

2  In  his  work  on  Homer  and  the  Homeric  Age. 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  Ill 

numberless  allusions  gives  proof  that  he  held  in  tender 
and  reverential  regard  the  old  Catholic  doctrines  and' 
usages  of  England's  past,  it  is  no  less  true  that  the  very 
shadow  or  vestige  of  foreign  interference  on  English 
ground,  whether  by  ecclesiastical  or  secular  authority, 
seems  at  once  to  suggest  to  him  expressions  of  defiant 
scorn.  Thus,  in  "King  John"  (Act  iii.,  Scene  1),  he 
makes  the  king  say  to  Pandulph,  — 

"  Thou  canst  not,  cardinal,  devise  a  name 
So  slight,  unworthy,  and  ridiculous, 
To  charge  me  to  an  answer  as  the  pope. 
Tell  him  this  tale ;  and,  from  the  mouth  of  England, 
Add  thus  much  more :  That  no  Italian  priest 
Shall  tithe  or  toll  in  our  dominions ; 
But  as  we  under  heaven  are  supreme  head, 
So,  under  him,  that  great  supremacy, 
Where  we  do  reign,  we  will  alone  uphold, 
Without  the  assistance  of  a  mortal  hand. 
So  tell  the  pope ;  all  reverence  set  apart 
To  him  and  his  usurped  authority." 

And,  for  a  more  general  expression  of  the  same  feel- 
ing, take  the  concluding  passage  of  the  same  play  :  — 

"  This  England  never  did  nor  never  shall 
Lie  at  the  proud  foot  of  a  conqueror, 
But  when  it  first  did  help  to  wound  itself. 
Now  these  her  princes  are  come  home  again, 
Come  the  three  corners  of  the  world  in  arms, 
And  we  shall  shock  them.     Nought  shall  make  us  rue, 
If  England  to  herself  do  rest  but  true." 

As  a  matter  of  course,  the  unities  of  time  and  place 
are  disregarded  in  these  historical  plays.  The  preser- 
vation even  of  the  unity  of  action,  in  a  number  of  plays 
adhering  pretty  faithfully  to  the  order  and  manner  of 
the  events,  is,  as  a  general  rule,  impossible  ;  nor  has 
Shakspeare  attempted  it.  In  "  Henry  VIII.,"  for  in- 
stance, his  object  seems  merely  to  have  been,  to  present 


112  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

a  succession  of  remarkable  scenes  founded  on  occur- 
rences which  happened  in  the  first  thirty  years  of  that 
reign.  These  scenes  are,  the  fall  of  Buckingham,  the 
fall  of  Wolsey,  the  divorce  and  death  of  Queen  Cathe- 
rine, and  the  birth  of  Elizabeth.  Patriotic  feeling  may 
be  held  to  invest  such  a  play  in  the  spectator's  mind, 
if  only  it  be  written  in  a  lofty  and  worthy  spirit,  with 
a  unity  of  design  equal  to  any  that  art  can  frame. 
When,  however,  the  events  of  a  reign  group  themselves 
naturally  into  a  dramatic  whole,  as  in  the  case  of 
Richard  III.,  Shakspeare  does  not  lose  the  opportunity 
of  still  further  heightening  the  effect  by  his  art ;  and 
there  is,  accordingly,  not  one  of  his  plays  more  closely 
bound  together  in  all  its  parts  by  the  development  of 
one  main  action  than  this.  The  unscrupulous  and  fear- 
less ambition  of  Richard  III.,  so  different  from  the 
same  passion  as  it  appears  in  the  conscience-haunted 
Macbeth,  crushes  successively  beneath  his  feet,  by  fair 
means  or  foul,  all  the  obstacles  in  his  path ;  till  the 
general  abhorrence,  springing  out  of  that  very  moral 
sense  which  Richard  despised  and  denied,  swells  to 
such  a  height  as  to  embrace  all  classes,  and  crushes  his 
iron  will  and  indomitable  courage,  his  schemes,  throne, 
and  person,  beneath  a  force  yet  more  irresistible. 

It  is  usual  to  rank  Ben  Jonson  next  after  Shakspeare 
among  the  dramatists  of  this  age,  chiefly  on  the  ground 
of  the  merits  of  his  celebrated  comedy,  "  Every  Man  in 
his  Humour,"  published  in  1596.  Yet  the  inferiority  of 
Jonson  to  Shakspeare  is  immeasurable.  It  is  true  that 
tie  observes  the  "unities"  (as  he  takes  care  to  inform 
us  in  the  prologue),  and  that  the  character  of  Capt. 
Bobadil,  the  bouncing  braggart  of  the  piece,  though 
the  original  conception  of  it  is  found  in  Terence,  and 
though  it  falls  far  short  of  the  somewhat  similar  creation 
of  "  Ancient  Pistol,"  abounds  in  fine  strokes  of  humor. 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  113 

But  the  characters  generally  do  not  impress  one  as 
substantial  flesh-and-blood  personages  like  those  of 
Shakspeare,  but  rather  as  mere  shadows,  or  personified 
humors,  in  which  one  cannot  feel  any  lively  interest. 
Real  wit  is  rare  in  the  piece  ;  arid  of  pure  fun  and 
merriment  there  is  not  a  sparkle.  Even  the  humor, 
although  it  has  been  so  much  admired,  has  scarcely  any 
universal  character  about  it ;  local  turns  of  thought, 
and  the  passing  mannerisms  of  the  age,  are  its  source 
and  aliment. 

Neither  of  the  two  completed  tragedies  which  Ben  Jonson  left, 
"Sejanus"  and  "Catiline,"  was  of  much  service  to  his  fame.1  The 
story  of  Sejanus,  the  powerful  minister  of  Tiberius,  is  an  excellent 
tragic  subject;  but  Jonson,  though  he  was  learned  about  Koman  man- 
ners and  the  externals  of  Roman  life,  failed  to  catch  the  spirit  of  the 
Roman  character;  its  dignity  on  the  one  hand,  its  cold  intellectual 
hardness  on  the  other,  he  has  not  reproduced,  nor  apparently  appre- 
ciated. "The  Poetaster,"  a  comical  satire,  is  a  drama  in  every  way 
superior  to  "  Sejanus."  The  scene  is  laid  at  the  court  of  Augustus; 
Crispinus  (by  whom  is  intended  the  dramatist  Thomas  Dekker)  and 
Demetrius  Fannius  are  arraigned  as  bad  and  worthless  poets  and 
libellous  scribblers ;  Crispinus,  being  condemned,  has  to  swallow  a 
purge,  which  makes  him  bring  up  a  string  of  crude  and  flatulent 
words  which  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  using;  and  the  two  are 
sworn  to  keep  the  peace  towards  Horace  and  all  other  men  of  genius 
for  the  future.  In  this  play  there  is  more  regularity  in  the  verse, 
more  measure  in  the  conceptions,  more  appropriateness  in  the  expres- 
sions, than  are  met  with  in  " Sejanus;"  the  scene  in  which  Augustus 
invites  Virgil  to  read  before  the  court  a  passage  from  the  "  JEneid" 
is  really  a  noble  picture. 

Among  the  comedies,  "Volpone"  and  "The  Alchemist"  are 
usually  placed  first.  The  first  is  the  story  of  a  wily  Venetian  noble- 
man, who,  assisted  by  a  confederate,  feigns  himself  to  be  dying,  in 
order  to  extract  gifts  from  his  rich  acquaintances,  each  of  whom  is 
persuaded  in  his  turn  that  he  is  named  as  sole  heir  in  the  sick  man's 

1  Chief  plays  of  Ben  Jonson :  Every  Man  in  his  Humor,  Every 
Man  out  of  his  Humor,  Volpone  or  the  Fox,  Epicoene  or  the  Silent 
Woman,  The  Alchemist,  Bartholomew  Fair,  comedies ;  The  Poetaster 
and  Cynthia's  Revels,  comical  satires ;  Sejanus  and  Catiline,  tragedies ; 
The  Sad  Shepherd,  a  pastoral  drama;  Love  freed  from  Ignorance  and 
Folly,  a  masque. 

10* 


114  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

will.  It  was  this  Yolpone,  between  whose  character  and  that  of  Lord 
Godolphin,  Dr.  Sacheverell,  in  his  celebrated  sermon,  drew  the  auda- 
cious parallel  which  probably  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  his  prosecu- 
tion. The  workmanship  of  this  piece  is  good,  and  the  dialogue 
lively;  but  the  characters  are  too  uniformly  weak  or  vicious  to  allow 
of  the  play  taking  a  strong  hold  of  the  mind.  In  "The  Alchemist," 
the  knight,  Sir  Epicure  Mammon,  is  the  dupe  of  Subtle,  the  alche- 
mist, by  whom  he  is  being  really  ruined,  while  supposing  himself  to 
be  on  the  brink  of  the  attainment  of  enormous  wealjth. 

Out  of  forty-six  extant  plays,  eleven  are  comedies, 
three  comical  satires,  one  a  pastoral  drama,  only  two 
(besides  a  fragment  of  a  third)  tragedies,  and  twenty- 
eight  masques  or  other  court  entertainments;  short 
pieces,  in  which,  to  a  yet  greater  extent  than  in  the 
modern  opera,  the  words  were  of  less  importance  than 
the  music,  decoration,  dumb  show,  and  other  theatrical 
accessories. 

The  plays  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  are  written  in 
a  purer  style  and  finer  language,  yet  in  both  these 
respects  they  fall  far  below  those  of  Shakspeare ;  and 
most  of  them  are  disfigured  by  a  grossness  of  thought 
and  expression  which  became  more  and  more  the  beset- 
ting vice  of  the  English  stage.  They  are  about  fifty- 
four  in  number,  fifteen  of  which  seem  to  have  been 
produced  by  the  two  friends  in  conjunction  ;  the  re- 
mainder are  understood  to  have  been  by  Fletcher  alone. 
There  is  much  fine  writing  in  these  plays ;  but  they  are 
marred  even  for  reading,  much  more  for  acting,  by  their 
utter  want  of  measure  and  sobriety  ;  a  defect  partly  due, 
perhaps,  to  the  predilection  of  the  authors  for  Spanish 
plots.  The  characters  in  "  The  Maid's  Tragedy,"  one 
of  the  most  famous  among  their  tragedies,  go  to  almost 
inconceivable  lengths  of  extravagance.  In  the  cele- 
brated comedy  of  "  Rule  a  Wife  and  Have  a  Wife,"  the 
change  which  gradually  comes  over  the  wife,  who  has 
found  a  master  where  she  meant  to  have  a  submissive 


ELIZABETHAN  PERIOD.  115 

tool,  is  nobly  and  beautifully  described ;  but  this  very 
change  seems  grossly  improbable,  when  ensuing  upon 
the  utter  moral  corruption  which  possessed  her  at  the 
first.  The  versification  of  these  plays  is,  as  a  general 
rule,  much  less  musical  and  regular  than  that  of  Shak- 
speare.1 

Of  the  plays  of  Philip  Massinger,  eighteen  are  pre- 
served, —  six  tragedies,  eight  comedies,  and  four  tragi- 
comedies. The  famous  play  of  "  A  New  Way  to  Pay 
Old  Debts  "  still  keeps  possession  of  the  stage,  for  the 
sake  of  the  finely-drawn  character  of  Sir  Giles  Over- 
reach. Massinger's  plays  were  carefully  and  ably 
edited  by  Gifford  in  1813.  He  seems  to  have  been  a 
retiring,  amiable  man,  ill  fitted  to  battle  with  the  rough 
theatrical  world  on  which  he  was  thrown.  He  could 
compose  a  fine  piece  of  theatrical  declamation,  and 
arrange  situations  which  proved  very  effective  on  the 
stage,  as  we  see  in  the  long  popular  tragedy  of  "  The 
Virgin  Martyr."  But  for  the  creation  of  character,  in 
the  Shakspearian  way,  he  had  no  vocation  ;  his  person- 
ages are  not  fashioned  and  developed  from  within  out- 
wards, but  take  up  or  change  a  course  of  action,  rather 
because  the  exigencies  of  the  plot  so  require,  than 
because  the  action  and  reaction  between  their  natures 
and  external  circumstances  constrain  them  so  to 
behave. 

"The  Virgin  Martyr"  has  telling  situations,  and  was  extremely 
popular  in  its  day.  The  martyr  is  Dorothea,  a  Christian  maiden  of 
the  age  of  Diocletian.  Antonius,  who  is  in  love  with  Dorothea,  is 
finely  drawn.  There  is  little  reality  in  the  other  characters.  There 
is  110  intrinsic  reason  laid  in  the  nature  of  Theophilus,  as  developed 

1  Chief  plays  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher:  Philaster,  The  Maid's 
Tragedy,  The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle,  King  and  No  King,  The 
Scornful  Lady.  Of  Fletcher  alone :  The  Elder  Brother,  The  Beggar's 
Bush,  Rule  a  Wife  and  have  a  Wife,  The  Faithful  Shepherdess. 


116  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

up  to  the  end  of  the  fourth  act,  to  account  for  his  turning  Christian 
in  the  fifth,  any  more  than  is  the  case  with  Sapritius  or  Sempronius.1 

John  Ford,  a  native  of  Devonshire,  and  born  in  1586, 
was  bred  to  the  law,  though  he  never  seems  to  have 
made  any  thing  of  a  career  in  that  profession.  His 
first  play,  "  The  Lover's  Melancholy,"  was  produced  in 
1629;  his  last,  "The  Lady's  Trial,"  in  1639.  From 
this  date  he  disappears  from  our  view.  The  plots  of 
his  finest  tragedies  are  so  horrible  and  revolting  that  it 
has  long  ceased  to  be  possible  to  produce  them  on  the 
stage.  Ford's  command  of  language,  and  power  of 
presenting  and  suitably  conducting  tragic  situations, 
are  very  great.  He  wrote  a  portion  of  a  once  famous 
play,  "  The  Witch  of  Edmonton,"  in  conjunction  with 
Rowley  and  Dekker. 

In  "The  Broken  Heart"  we  have  a  smooth  and  cheerful  opening; 
but  the  fourth  and  fifth  acts  bring  down  a  very  shower  of  horrors. 
In  the  fourth,  King  Amyclas  dies;  Panthea  starves  herself  to  death; 
and  Orgilus  her  lover  treacherously  kills  her  brother  Ithocles,  by 
whom  he  had  been  prevented  from  marrying  her.  In  the  fifth,  Cal- 
antha,  the  daughter  of  Amyclas,  who  had  been  betrothed  to  Ithocles, 
dies  of  a  "broken  heart;"  and  Orgilus,  allowed  to  choose  the  manner 
of  his  death,  opens  his  veins  with  his  own  dagger.  The  language  in 
this  play  is  often  intricate  and  obscure,  which  is  the  less  excusable  in 
Ford,  because  he  could  write  with  a  beautiful  clearness  and  simplicity. 
Nine  plays  by  Ford  have  survived,  of  which  four  are  tragedies,  two 
tragi-comedies,  one  a  masque,  one  ("Perkin  Warbeck")  an  historical 
play,  and  one  a  comedy.2 

Of  John  Webster,  the  author  of  a  famous  tragedy 
called  "  The  Duchess  of  Malfi,"  not  even  so  much  as 

1  Chief   plays    of   Massinger:    The    Virgin    Martyr,   The    Fatal 
Dowry,  tragedies ;  The  Maid  of  Honor,  A  Very  Woman,  The  Bashful 
Lover,  tragi-comedies;   A  New  Way  to  Pay  Old  Debts,  The  City 
Madam,  comedies. 

2  Chief  plays  of  Ford :  The  Broken  Heart.  Love's  Sacrifice,  The 
Lover's  Melancholy,  The  Lady's  Trial,  The  Fancies   Chaste   and 
Noble. 


ELIZABETHAN  PERIOD.  117 

the  year  of  his  birth  is  known.  The  period  of  his 
greatest  popularity  and  acceptance  as  a  dramatist  was 
about  1620.  Eight  of  his  plays  have  been  preserved, 
of  several  of  which  he  was  only  part  author.  The 
three  tragedies  are  exclusively  his ;  and  it  is  upon  these 
that  his  fame  rests.  The  plot  of  "  The  Duchess  of 
Malfi  "  turns  upon  the  virtuous  affection  conceived  by 
the  duchess  for  her  steward  Antonio,  —  an  affection 
which,  by  wounding  the  pride  of  her  family,  involves 
both  its  object  and  herself  in  ruin. 

John  Marston  was  born  about  the  year  1575.  What 
little  is  known  of  him  is  gathered  almost  entirely  from 
stray  allusions  in  the  works  of  his  contemporaries.  In 
conversation  with  Drummond  of  Hawthornden,  Ben 
Jonson  spoke  contemptuously  of  Marston,  and  said 
that  he  had  fought  him  several  times.  He  is  the  author 
of  eight  plays,  the  chief  of  which  is  "  The  Malcon- 
tent," a  tragi-comedy.  Besides  these,  he  was  part 
author,  with  Jonson  and  Chapman,  of  the  comedy  of 
"  Eastward  Hoe,"  which  contained  such  stinging  sar- 
casms upon  the  Scotch  that  all  three  were  thrown  into 
prison. 

Chapman  has  left  us  eight  comedies  and  four  trage- 
dies, among  which  the  tragedy  of  "  Bussy  d'Amboise  " 
is  the  most  noted.  Even  of  this  Dryden  says,  in  the 
dedication  to  his  "  Spanish  Friar,"  "  A  famous  modern 
poet  used  to  sacrifice  every  year  a  statins  to  Virgil's 
manes ,  and  I  have  indignation  enough  to  burn  a 
4  d'Amboise  '  annually  to  the  memory  of  Jonson." 

Some  mention  must  be  made  of  Thomas  Dekker,  the 
butt,  as  we  have  seen,  of  Jonson's  satire  in  "  The  Poet- 
aster." Dekker  replied  vigorously  to  the  attack  in  his 
comedy  of  "  Satiro-mastix ;  or,  the  Untrussing  the  Hu- 
morous Poet,"  in  which  Ben  Jonson  is  introduced  as 
"  Young  Horace."  He  wrote  several  other  plays,  in 


118  HISTOEY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

whole  or  in  part ;  with  Webster  he  produced  "  West- 
ward Hoe  "  and  "  Northward  Hoe,"  and  assisted  Mid- 
dleton  in  "  The  Roaring  Girl."  Dekker  is  also  the 
author  of  several  satirical  tracts ;  e.g.,  "  News  from 
Hell,"  and  "  The  Guls  Hornbook,"  which  throw  great 
light  on  the  manners  of  the  age. 

Thomas  Heywood,  a  most  prolific  writer,  is  the  author 
of  one  very  famous  play,  "  A  Woman  Killed  with  Kind- 
nesse  "  (1617).  The  story  closely  resembles  that  of 
Kotzebue's  play  of  "  The  Stranger  :  "  an  unfaithful  wife, 
overcome  by  the  inexhaustible  goodness  of  her  injured 
but  forgiving  husband,  droops  and  expires  in  the  rush 
of  contending  emotions  —  shame,  remorse,  penitence, 
and  gratitude  —  which  distract  her  soul.  Thomas  Mid- 
dle ton  wrote,  in  whole  or  in  part,  a  large  number  of 
plays;  Mr.  Dyce's  edition  of  his  works  comprises 
twenty-two  dramas  and  eleven  masques.  Of  these  "  The 
Familie  of  Love"  and  "The  Witch"  (from  which 
Shakspeare  may  have  derived  a  suggestion  or  two  for 
the  witches  in  "  Macbeth  ")  have  been  singled  out  for 
praise.  William  Rowley  seems  to  have  preferred  writ- 
ing acts  in  other  men's  plays  to  inventing  or  adapting 
plots  for  himself;  thus  we  find  him  taking  part  in  "  The 
Old  Law  "  with  Massinger  and  Middle  ton,  and  in  "  The 
Spanish  Gipsie "  with  Middleton.  There  is  much 
powerful  writing  in  Cyril  Tourneur's  tragedy  of  "  The 
Atheist's  Revenge." 

When  we  look  into  the  private  life  of  these  Eliza- 
bethan dramatists,  we  too  often  find  it  a  wild  scene 
of  irregular  activity  and  unbridled  passion,  of  improvi- 
dence and  embarrassment,  of  fits  of  diligence  alternat- 
ing with  the  saturnalia  of  a  loose  and  reckless  gayety, 
of  unavailing  regrets  cut  short  by  early  death.  Yet  we 
must  not  judge  them  harshly,  for  they  fell  upon  an  age 
of  transition  and  revolution.  The  ancient  church, 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  119 

environed  ^s  it  was  with  awe  and  mystery,  —spreading 
into  unknown  depths  and  distances  in  time  and  space, 
which  might  be  resisted,  but  could  not  be  despised,  — 
had  passed  from  the  land  like  a  dream ;  and  the  new 
institution  which  the  will  of  the  nation  had  substituted 
for  it,  whatever  might  be  its  merits,  could  not  as  yet 
curb  the  pride,  nor  calm  the  passions,  nor  dazzle  the 
imagination,  of  England's  turbulent  and  gifted  youth. 
True,  Catholicism,  in  disappearing,  had  left  solid  moral 
traditions  behind  it,  which  the  better  English  mind, 
naturally  serious  and  conscientious,  faithfully  adhered 
to  and  even  developed ;  but  the  playwrights  and  wits, 
or  at  any  rate  the  great  majority  of  them,  plunged  in 
the  immunities  and  irregularities  of  a  great  city,  and 
weak  with  the  ductile  temperament  of  the  artist,  were 
generally  outside  the  sphere  of  these  traditions. 

The  last  of  this  race  of  dramatists  was  James  Shirley. 
His  first  play,  "  Love  Tricks,"  appeared  in  1625 ;  and 
scarcely  a  year  passed  between  that  date  and  1642  in 
which  he  did  not  bring  a  new  drama  upon  the  stage. 
In  November,  1642,  the  Long  Parliament  passed  a  reso- 
lution by  which,  in  consideration  of  the  disturbed  state 
of  the  country,  the  London  theatres  were  closed.  Out 
of  the  thirty  dramas  comprised  in  Mr.  Dyce's  edition, 
six  are  tragedies,  four  tragi-comedies,  and  twenty  come- 
dies. The  plots  of  more  than  half  of  these  are  of 
Italian  or  Spanish  origin  ;  most  of  the  rest  are  drawn 
from  contemporary  English  life.  "  In  the  greater  part 
of  Shirley's  dramas,"  says  Mr.  Hallam,  "we  find  the 
favorite  style  of  that  age,  the  characters  foreign  and  of 
elevated  rank,  the  interest  serious  but  not  always  of 
buskined  dignity,  the  catastrophe  fortunate ;  all,  in 
short,  that  has  gone  under  the  vague  appellation  of 
tragi-comedy."  It  must  be  admitted  in  Shirley's  favor, 
that  though  his  incidents  are  often  ooarse,  and  his  dia- 


120  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

logue  licentious,  his  poetical  justice  is  most  often 
soundly  administered ;  in  the  end,  vice  suffers  and  vir- 
tue is  rewarded.  He  was  burnt  out  in  the  great  fire  of 
1666  ;  and  the  discomfort  and  distress  thus  brought 
upon  him  are  said  to  have  caused  his  death.  Besides 
his  regular  dramas,  Shirley  is  the  author  of  several 
moral  plays,  masques,  and  short  plays  for  exhibition  in 
private  houses  or  schools.  At  the  end  of  a  performance 
of  this  kind,  which  seems  to*  have  been  the  last  dra- 
matic piece  he  ever  wrote,  "  The  Contention  of  Ajax 
and  Ulysses,"  occurs  the  noble  choral  ode  beginning 
",The  glories  of  our  blood  and  state,"  which  is  printed 
in  Percy's  "  Reliques,"  and  many  other  collections.1 

The  invectives  of  the  Puritans  against  theatrical 
entertainments  during  all  this  period  became  ever  louder 
and  more  vehement,  creating  by  their  extravagance  a 
counter  license  and  recklessness  in  the  dramatists,  and 
again  justified  in  their  turn,  or  partly  so,  by  their 
excesses.  At  last,  in  1643,  after  the  civil  war  had 
broken  out,  the  Puritan  party  became  the  masters  of 
the  situation,  and  the  theatres  were  closed.  This  date 
brings  us  down  some  way  into  the  succeeding  period. 

Prose  Writing:    Novels,    Essays,    Criticism. 

The  prose  literature  of  this  period  is  not  less  abun- 
dant and  various  than  the  poetry.  We  meet  now  with 
novelists,  pamphleteers,  and  essayists  for  the  first  time. 
Lodge  wrote  several  novels,  from  one  of  which,  "  Rosa- 
lind,"  Shakspeare  took  the  plot  of  "  As  You  Like 
it."  Lyly  published  his  "  Euphues  "  in  1578  ;  and  the 
"Arcaclia"  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney  appeared  after  the 

1  Chief  plays  of  Shirley:  "The  Maid's  Revenge,"  "The  Politi- 
cian," "The  Cardinal,"  tragedies  ;  "The  Ball,"  "The  Gamester," 
"The  Bird  in  a  Cage"  (which  has  an  ironical  dedication  to  William 
Prynne),  "  The  Lady  of  Pleasure,"  comedies. 


ELIZABETHAN  PERIOD.  121 

author's  death  in  1590.  This  tedious  pastoral  ro- 
mance is  the  fruit  of  the  revival  of  letters,  and  of  the 
influence  of  Italian  literature.  It  was  evidently  sug- 
gested by  the  "  Arcadia  "  of  Sanazzaro,  a  Neapolitan 
poet,  who  died  in  the  year  1530.  Now,  too,  the  litera- 
ture of  travel  and  adventure,  which  began  with  old  Sir 
John  Maundevile,  and  has  attained  to  such  vast  propor- 
tions among  us  in  modern  times,  was  placed  on  a  broad 
and  solid  pedestal  of  recorded  fact  by  the  work  of 
Richa-rd  Hakluyt,  a  Herefordshire  man,  who  in  1589 
published  a  collection  of  voyages  made  by  Englishmen 
"  at  any  time  "  (as  he  states  on  the  titlepage)  "  within 
the  compass  of  these  fifteen  hundred  years."  Purchas1 
"  Pilgrimage,"  of  which  the  third  edition  is  dated  1617, 
will  occur  to  many  as  the  book  in  which  Coleridge  had 
been  reading  before  he  dreamt  the  dream  of  "  Kubla 
Khan."  Samuel  Purchas  was  the  clergyman  of  St. 
Martin's,  Ludgate,  and  a  stanch  upholder  of  Episco- 
pacy. In  the  epistle  dedicatory,  addressed  to  Arch- 
bishop Bancroft,  after  saying  that  he  had  consulted 
above  twelve  hundred  authors  in  the  composition  of  the 
work,  and  explaining  what  those  would  find  in  it  who 
sought  for  information  simply,  he  proceeds,  "  Others 
may  hence  learn  .  .  .  two  lessons  fitting  these  times, 
the  unnaturalness  of  faction  and  atheism ;  that  law  of 
nature  having  written  in  the  practice  of  all  men  .  .  . 
the  profession  of  some  religion,  and  in  that  religion, 
wheresoever  any  society  of  priests  or  religious  persons 
are  or  have  been  in  the  world,  no  admittance  of  Par- 
ite ;  the  angels  in  heaven,  divels  in  hell  (as  the  royal- 
lest  of  fathers,  the  father  of  our  country,  hath  pro- 
nounced), and  all  religions  on  earth,  as  here  we  show, 
being  equally  subject  to  inequality,  that  is,  to  the 
equitie  of  subordinate  order.  And,  if  I  live  to  finish 
the  rest,  I  hope  to  show  the  Paganism  of  anti-chris- 
11 


122  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

tian  Popery,"  &c.  Without  being  a  follower  of  M. 
Comte,  one  may  be  of  opinion  that  the  mental  condition 
of  those  who  could  carry  on,  or  assent  to  the  carrying 
on,  of  anthropological  researches  in  the  temper  of  mind 
avowed  by  honest  Purchas,  needed  a  large  infusion  of 
the  esprit  positif.1 

The  genius  of  Montaigne  raised  up  English  imitators 
of  his  famous  work,  one  of  whom  was  afterwards  to 
eclipse  his  original.  Francis  Bacon  published  a  small 
volume  entitled  "  Essayes,  Religious  Meditations,  Places 
of  Perswasion  and  Disswasion,"  in  1597.  These  were 
again  published,  with  large  additions,  in  1612 ;  and 
again,  similarly  augmented,  in  1625,  under  the  title  of 
"  Essayes,  or  Counsels  Civill  and  Moral."  2  In  the  dedi- 
cation to  this  edition,  Lord  Bacon  writes,  "  I  do  now 
publish  my  "  Essayes,"  which  of  all  my  other  workes 
have  beene  most  currant ;  for  that,  as  it  seemes,  they 
come  home  to  men's  businesse  and  bossomes.  I  have 
enlarged  them  both  in  number  and  weight,  so  that  they 
are  indeed  a  new  work."  The  "  Essays,"  in  this  their 
final  shape,  were  immediately  translated  into  French, 
Italian,  and  Latin. 

At  the  end  of  the  present  period,  an  Oxford  student, 
fond  of  solitude  and  the  learned  dust  of  great  libraries, 
produced  a  strange,  multifarious  book,  which  he  called 
"  The  Anatomy  of  Melancholy."  Robert  Burton  lived 
for  some  thirty  years  in  his  rooms  at  Christ  Church, 

1  The  full  title  of  this  curious  old  book  is,  "Purchas,  his  Pilgrim- 
age, or,  Relations  of  the  World  and  the  Religions  observed  in  all  Ages 
and  Places  discovered,  from  the  Creation  unto  this  Present.     In  four 
parts.    This  First  contayneth  a  Theological  and  Geographical  History 
of  Asia,  Africa,  and  America,  with  the  islands  adjacent."     Besides, 
the  religions,  ancient  and  modem  (which,  he  says,  are  his  principal 
aim),  he  undertakes  to  describe  the  chief  rarities  and  wonders  of  na- 
ture and  art  in  all  the  countries  treated  of. 

2  See  p.  513. 


ELIZABETHAN  PERIOD.  123 

much,  like  a  monk  in  his  cell,  reading  innumerable  books 
on  all  conceivable  subjects,  "  but  to  little  purpose,"  as  he 
himself  admits,  "  for  want  of  good  method  ;  "  and  could 
hit  on  no  better  mode  of  utilizing  his  labors  than  by 
completing,  or  attempting  to  complete,  a  design  which 
the  Greek  philosopher  Democritus  is  recorded  to  have 
entertained,  —  that  of  writing  a  scientific  treatise  on 
melancholy.  Burton  had  an  odd  sort  of  humor,  and  an 
idle  hour  may  be  whiled  away  pleasantly  enough  by 
opening  his  book  almost  anywhere  ;  but,  as  for  science, 
it  is  not  to  writers  of  his  stamp  that  one  must  go  for 
that. 

The  deeper  culture  of  the  time  displayed  itself  in  the 
earliest  attempts  in  our  language  at  literary  and  aesthetic 
criticism.  George  Gascoyne,  the  poet,  led  the  way  with 
a  short  tract  entitled,  "Notes  of  Instruction  concerning 
the  making  of  Verse  or  Rhyme  in  English : "  this  ap- 
peared in  1575.  William  Webbe  is  the  author  of  a 
"  Discourse  of  English  Poetrie,"  published  in  1586 ;  a 
work  of  little  value.  But  in  1589  appeared  the  "  Arte 
of  English  Poesie "  of  Puttenham,  a  gentleman  pen- 
sioner at  the  court  of  Elizabeth ;  a  work  distinguished 
by  much  shrewdness  and  good  sense,  and  containing,  as 
Warton's  pages  testify,  a  quantity  of  minute  informa- 
tion about  English  poetry  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
which  cannot  be  found  elsewhere.  But,  among  all  such 
works,  Sir  Philip  Sidney's  "  Defence  of  Poesy,"  written 
about  1584,  stands  pre-eminent.  Chaucer's  diction  was 
antiquated;  Surrey  and  Wyat  were  refined  versifiers, 
rather  than  poets;  the  sun  of  Spenser  had  but  just 
risen  ,  and,  as  people  are  apt  to  hold  cheap  that  in  which 
they  do  not  excel,  it  seems  that  the  English  literary 
public  at  this  time  were  disposed  to  regard  poetry  as  a 
frivolous  and  useless  exercise  of  the  mind,  unworthy  to 
engage  the  attention  of  those  who  could  betake  them- 


124  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

selves  to  philosophy  or  history.  A  work  embodying 
these  opinions,  entitled  "  The  School  of  Abuse,"  was 
written  by  Stephen  Gosson  in  1579,  and  dedicated  to 
Sidney ;  and  it  seems  not  improbable  that  this  work  was 
the  immediate  occasion  which  called  forth  "  The  Defence 
of  Poesy."  In  this  really  noble  and  beautiful  treatise, 
which,  moreover,  has  the  merit  of  being  very  short,  Sir 
Philip  seeks  to  call  his  countrymen  to  a  better  mind, 
and  vindicates  the  pre-eminence  of  the  poet,  as  a  seer, 
a  thinker,  and  a  maker.1 

It  has  been  discovered 2  that  from  this  period  dates 
the  first  regular  newspaper,  though  it  did  not  as  yet 
contain  domestic  intelligence.  "  The  first  news-pamphlet 
which  came  out  at  regular  intervals  appears  to  have 
been  that  entitled  4  The  News  of  the  Present  Week,' 
edited  by  Nathaniel  Butler;  which  was  started  in  1622, 
in  the  early  days  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and  was 
continued,  in  conformity  with  its  title,  as  a  weekly  pub- 
lication." 

History:    Holinshed,    Camden,    Lord    Bacon,    Speed,    Knolles, 
Raleigh,  Foxe. 

Continuing  in  the  track  of  the  chroniclers  mentioned 
in  the  last  chapter,  Raphael  Holinshed,  and  his  col- 
league William  Harrison,  produced  their  well-known 
"  Description  and  History  of  England,  Scotland,  and 
Ireland,"  in  1577.  Since  the  revival  of  learning,  famil- 
iarity with  the  works  of  Strabo  and  other  Greek  geog- 
raphers had  caused  geography  to  become  a  popular 
study ;  and,  among  the  evidences  of  this  in  England,  the 
topographical  portions  of  this  chronicle  are  perhaps  the 
most  important  that  we  have  come  to  since  the  "  Itiner- 
arium  "  of  Leland,  though  superseded  a  few  years  later 
by  the  far  more  celebrated  and  valuable  work  known  as 

1  See  p.  516.  2  Craik,  vol.  iv.  p.  97. 


ELIZABETHAN  PERIOD.  125 

Camden's  "Britannia."  It  would  be  unfair  to  say  a  word 
in  dispraise  of  the  style  of  this  Description,  since  its 
author,  Harrison,  throws  himself  ingenuously  on  the 
reader's  mercy,  in  words  which  remind  one  of  the  im- 
mortal Dogberry's  anxiety  to  be  to  be  "  written  down 
an  ass."  "  If  your  honour,"  he  says  (the  book  is  ad- 
dressed to  Lord  Cobham),  "  regard  the  substance  of 
that  which  is  here  declared,  I  must  needs  confesse  that 
it  is  none  of  mine  owne  ;  but,  if  your  lordship  have  con- 
sideration of  the  barbarous  composition  showed  herein, 
that  I  may  boldly  claime  and  challenge  for  mine  owne ; 
sith  there  is  no  man  of  any  so  slender  skill,  that  will 
defraud  me  of  that  reproach,  which  is  due  unto  me,  for 
the  meere  negligence,  disorder,  and  evil  disposition  of 
matter  comprehended  in  the  same."  Of  Holinshed,  the 
author  of  the  historical  portions,  very  little  is  known ; 
but  the  total  absence  of  the  critical  spirit  in  his  work 
seems  to  show  that  he  could  not  have  belonged  to  the 
general  literary  fraternity  of  Europe,  since  that  spirit 
was  already  rife  and  operative  on  the  Continent.  Ludo- 
vicus  Vives,  for  instance,  a  Spaniard,  and  a  fellow- 
worker  with  Erasmus  and  other  emancipators  of  litera- 
ture and  taste,  had  expressed  disbelief  in  the  fable  of 
Brute,  the  legendary  founder  of  the  British  monarchy, 
many  years  before  ;  yet  Holinshed  quietly  translates  all 
the  trash  that  he  found  in  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  about 
that  and  other  mythical  personages,  as  if  it  were  so 
much  solid  history.  The  extent  to  which,  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  credulity  still  darkened  the  historic 
field,  may  be  judged  of  from  a  few  facts.  Thus  Hol- 
inshed lays  it  down  as  probable  that  Britain  was  peopled 
long  before  the  deluge.  These  primitive  Britons  he 
supposes  to  have  been  all  drowned  in  the  flood;  he 
then  attributes  the  re-peopling  of  the  island  to  Samo- 
thes,  the  son  of  Japhet,  son  of  Noah.  The  population 
11* 


UJj'   .ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

being  scanty,  it  was  providentially  recruited  by  the 
arrival  of  the  fifty  daughters  of  Danaus,  a  king  of 
Egypt,  who,  having  all  killed  their  husbands,  were  sent 
adrift  in  a  ship,  and  carried  by  the  winds  to  Britain. 
This,  however,  Holinshed  admits  to  be  doubtful ;  but 
the  arrival  of  Ulysses  on  our  shores  he  is  ready  to  vouch 
for ;  and  he  favorably  considers  the  opinion  that  the 
name  of  Albion  was  derived  from  a  huge  giant  of  that 
name,  who  took  up  his  abode  here,  the  son  of  Neptune, 
god  of  the  seas.  Then  as  to  Brute,  the  great-grandson 
of  ^Eneas,  Holinshed  no  more  doubts  about  his  exist- 
ence, nor  that  from  him  conies  the  name  of  Britain,  than 
he  doubts  that  Elizabeth  succeeded  Mary.  Such  were 
among  the  consequences  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
uncritical  writers  of  the  middle  ages  had  jumbled  his- 
tory, theology,  and  philosophy  all  up  together.  Never- 
theless the  chronicles  of  Holinshed,  being  written  in  an 
easy  and  agreeable  style,  became  a  popular  book.  They 
were  reprinted,  with  a  continuation,  in  1587  ;  they  found 
in  Shakspeare  a  diligent  reader ;  and  they  were  again 
reprinted  in  1807. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  judicial  office  of  the  histo- 
rian began  to  be  better  understood.  William  Camden, 
now  scarcely  thought  of  except  as  an  antiquary,  was  in 
truth  a  trained  and  ripe  scholar,  and  an  intelligent 
student  of  history.  England  has  more  reason  to  be 
proud  of  him  than  of  many  whose  names  are  more 
familiar  to  our  ears.  The  man  who  won  the  friendship 
of  the  president  De  Thou,  and  corresponded  on  equal 
terms  with  that  eminent  historian,  as  also  with  Casau- 
bon  and  Lipsius  abroad,  and  Usher  and  Spelman  at 
home,  must  have  possessed  solid  and  extraordinary 
merits.  His  "  Britannia,"  a  work  on  the  topography 
of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  with  the  isles  adja- 
cent, enriched  with  historical  illustrations,  first  appeared 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  127 

in  1586,  while  he  was  an  under-master  at  Westminster 
School.  In  1604  he  published  his  "  Reliquiae  Britan- 
nicse,"  a  treatise  on  the  early  inhabitants  of  Britain.  In 
this  work,  undeterred  by  the  sham  array  of  authorities 
which  had  imposed  upon  Holinshed,  he  "blew  away 
sixty  British  kings  with  one  blast."  *  Burleigh,  the 
great  statesman  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  the  Cavour 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  singled  out  Camden  as  the 
fittest  man  in  all  England  to  write  the  history  of  the 
first  thirty  years  of  the  queen's  reign,  and  intrusted 
to  him,  for  that  purpose,  a  large  mass  of  state  papers. 
Eighteen  years  elapsed  before  Camden  discharged  the 
trust.  At  last,  in  1615,  his  "  History,  or  Annals  of 
England  during  the  Reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,"  made 
its  appearance.  "  The  love  of  truth,"  he  says  in  the 
preface,  "has  been  the  only  incitement  to  me  to  under- 
take this  work."  The  studied  impartiality  of  De  Thou 
had  made  this  language  popular  among  historians,  and 
Camden  probably  fancied  at  the  moment  that  he  had  no 
other  motive ;  but,  to  say  nothing  of  the  "  incitement " 
administered  by  Lord  Burleigh,  his  own  words,  a  little 
farther  on,  show  that  the  "  scandalous  libels  "  published 
in  foreign  parts  against  the  late  queen  and  the  English 
Government,  formed  a  powerful  stimulus.  In  short,  his 
history  must  be  taken  as  a  vindication,  but  in  a  more 
moderate  tone  than  was  then  usual,  of  the  Protestant 
policy  of  England  since  the  accession  of  Elizabeth.  Its 
value  would  be  greater  than  it  is,  but  for  his  almost 
uniform  neglect  to  quote  his  authorities  for  the  state- 
ments he  makes.  This  fact,  coupled  to  the  discovery, 
in  our  own  times,  of  many  new  and  independent  sources 
of  information,  to  him  unknown,  has  caused  his  labors 
to  be  much  disregarded. 

Lord  Bacon's  "  History  of  the  Reign  of  Henry  VII.," 

1  Speed. 


128  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

published  in  1622,  is  in  many  ways  a  masterly  work. 
With  the  true  philosophic  temper,  he  seeks,  not  content 
with  a  superficial  narrative  of  events,  to  trace  out  and 
exhibit  their  causes  and  connections;  and  hence  he 
approaches  to  the  modern  conception  of  history,  as  the 
record  of  the  development  of  peoples,  rather  than  of 
the  actions  of  princes  and  other  showy  personages.1 

The  writers  of  literary  history  have  been  unjust  to 
John  Speed,  whom  it  is  the  custom  to  speak  of  as  a  dull, 
plodding  chronicler.  Speed  was  much  more  than  this. 
His  "  Historic  of  Great  Britain "  exhibits,  in  a  very 
striking  way,  the  rapid  growth  of  that  healthy  scepti- 
cism which  is  one  of  the  essential  qualifications  of  the 
historian.  The  nonsense  which  Holinshed,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  received  from  his  predecessors,  and  innocently 
retailed,  respecting  the  early  history  of  Britain,  Speed 
disposes  of  with  a  few  blunt  words.  A  supposed  work 
of  Berosus,  on  which  Holinshed,  following  Bishop  Bale, 
relied  for  the  details  he  entered  into  respecting  the 
antediluvian  period,  had  been  proved  to  be  an  impudent 
forgery:  Speed  therefore  extinguishes  Samothes,  the 
daughters  of  Danaus,  Ulysses,  &c.,  without  ceremony. 
Next  he  presumes  to  doubt,  if  not  to  deny,  the  exist- 
ence of  "  Albion  the  giant."  But  a  more  audacious 
piece  of  scepticism  remains.  Speed  does  not  believe  in 
Brute,  and  by  implication  denies  that  we  English  are 
descended  from  the  Trojans ;  an  article  which,  all 
through  the  middle  ages,  was  believed  in  with  a  firm, 
undoubting  faith.  After  giving  the  evidence  for  and 
against  the  legend  in  great  detail,  and  with  perfect  fair- 
ness, he  gives  judgment  himself  on  the  side  of  reason ; 
and,  with  regard  to  the  Trojan  descent,  advises  Britons 
to  "disclaim  that  which  bringeth  no  honor  to  so 
renowned  a  nation."  The  same  rationality  displays 

i  See  p.  487. 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  129 

Itself  as  the  history  proceeds.  Holiiished  speaks  in  a 
sort  of  gingerly  way  of  the  miracles  attributed  to  St. 
Dunstan,  as  if,  on  the  one  hand,  the  extraordinary  char- 
acter of  some  of  them  staggered  even  him ;  while,  on 
the  other,  his  natural  credulity  compelled  him  to  swal- 
low them.  But  honest  Speed  brushes  out  of  his  path 
all  these  pious  figments.  "  As  for  angels  singing  famil- 
iarly unto  him,"  he  says,  "and  divels  in  the  shape  of 
dogs,  foxes,  and  beares,  whipped  by  him,  that  was  but 
ordinary ;  as  likewise  his  making  the  she-divell  to  roare, 
when,  coming  to  tempt  him  in  shape  of  a  beautiful  lasse, 
he  caught  her  by  the  nose  with  hot  burning  pincers, 
and  so  spoilde  a  good  face.  But  to  leave  these  figments 
wherewith  our  monkish  stories  are  stuffed,"  &c. 

The  complimentary  verses  printed,  as  the  custom 
then  was,  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  edition  of  the 
work,  show  that  Speed  was  warmly  admired  by  a  circle 
of  contemporary  students,  who  took  an  eager  interest 
in  his  labors.  This  fact,  and  the  rudiments  of  a  sound 
historical  criticism  contained  in  his  history,  entitle  us  to 
conjecture,  that,  had  no  disturbing  influences  intervened, 
the  English  school  of  historians,  which  numbered  at 
this  time  men  like  Speed,  and  Knolles,  and  Camden  in 
its  ranks,  would  have  progressively  developed  its  powers, 
and  attained  to  ever  wider  views,  until  it  had  thought 
out  all  those  critical  principles  which  it  was  actually 
left  to  Niebuhr  and  the  Germans  to  discover.  But  the 
civil  war  came,  and  broke  the  thread  of  research.  The 
strong  intellects  that  might  otherwise  have  applied 
themselves  to  the  task  of  establishing  canons  of  evi- 
dence, and  testing  the  relative  credibility  of  various 
historical  materials,  were  compelled  to  enter  into  the 
arena  of  political  action,  and  to  work  and  fight  either 
for  king  or  parliament.  We  cannot  complain :  one 
nation  cannot  do  all  that  the  race  requires.  Contented 


130  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

to  have  immensely  accelerated,  by  our  civil  war  and  its 
incidents,  the  progress  of  political  freedom  in  Europe, 
we  must  resign  to  Germany  that  philosophical  pre- 
eminence which,  had  the  English  intellect  peacefully 
expanded  itself  during  the  seventeenth  century,  we 
might  possibly  have  contested  with  her. 

Another  excellent  and  painstaking  writer  of  the  school 
was  Richard  Knolles,  a  former  fellow  of  Lincoln  Col- 
lege, Oxford,  who  published  in  1610  his  "  General  His- 
toric of  the  Turks."  It  was  the  first  complete  history 
of  this  people  that  had  appeared  ;  and  the  interest  of  the 
undertaking  lay,  in  the  opinion  of  the  author,  in  the 
"  fatal  mutations  "  which  this  warlike  nation  had  in  a 
short  time  brought  upon  a  great  part  of  the  world.  In 
the  mournful  list  of  conquests  from  Christendom  which 
he  records,  the  only  names  of  countries  that  have  been 
since  reconquered  are  Hungary,  Greece,  and  Algeria ; 
but  the  European  mind  had  not,  in  1610,  become  indif- 
ferent, from  long  custom,  to  the  ruin  of  so  many  Chris- 
tian communities,  recently  flourishing  in  Asia  Minor  and 
Roumelia. 

The  versatility  of  Raleigh's  powers  was  something 
marvellous ;  nevertheless  it  must  be  admitted,  that  when 
he  undertook  to  write  the  "  History  of  the  World," l 
commencing  at  the  creation,  he  miscalculated  his  powers. 
No  one,  indeed,  would  bear  hardly  on  a  work,  the  labors 
of  which  must  have  relieved  many  a  cheerless  and  lonely 
hour  in  that  dark  prison-cell  in  the  Tower,  in  which  one 
may  still  stand,  and  muse  on  the  indomitable  spirit  of 
its  inmate.  The  book,  however,  has  certainly  been  over- 
praised. It  is  full  of  that  uncritical  sort  of  learning, 
which,  with  all  its  elaborate  theories  and  solemn  discus- 
sions, we,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  know  to  be  abso- 
lutely worthless.  The  hundred  and  thirty-eighth  page  is 

i  See  p.  485. 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  131 

reached  before  the  reader  is  let  out  of  the  Garden  of 
Eden.  Deucalion's  flood  is  gravely  treated  as  an  histori- 
cal event,  the  date  of  which  is  pretty  certain ;  a  similar 
view  is  taken  of  the  "  flood  of  Ogyges,"  which,  by  a 
stupendous  process  of  argumentation,  is  proved  to  have 
taken  place  exactly  five  hundred  and  eighty  years  after 
that  of  Noah.  A  voluminous  disquisition  follows,  with 
the  object  of  proving  that  the  ark  did  not  rest  on  Mount 
Ararat,  but  upon  some  part  of  the  Caucasus.  At  the 
end  of  four  hundred  and  eleven  pages,  we  have  only 
reached  the  reign  of  Semiramis,  B.C.  2000,  or  there- 
abouts. Proceeding  at  this  rate,  it  was  obviously  im- 
possible, even  though  the  scale  of  the  narrative  is 
gradually  contracted,  that  within  the  ordinary  term  of 
a  human  life  the  work  should  be  carried  down  beyond 
the  Christian  era.  It  closes,  in  fact,  about  the  year  B.C. 
170,  with  the  final  subjugation  of  Macedon  by  the 
Romans.  That  there  are  eloquent  and  stirring  passages 
in  the  book,  no  one  will  deny  ;  yet  they  mostly  appear  in 
connection  with  a  theory  of  history,  which,  though  com- 
monly held  in  Raleigh's  day,  has  long  ceased  to  be 
thought  adequate  to  cover  the  facts.  That  theory,  a 
legacy  from  the  times  when  all  departments  of  human 
knowledge  were  overshadowed  and  intruded  upon  by 
theology,  is  fully  stated  in  the  preface.  It  deals  with 
history  as  being  didactic,  rather  than  expository ;  as  if 
its  proper  office  were  to  teach  moral  lessons,  the  most 
important  of  these  being,  that  God  always  requites  vir- 
tuous and  vicious  princes  in  this  world  according  to 
their  deserts,  —  that  "  ill-doing  hath  always  been  at- 
tended with  ill-success."  History,  on  this  view,  became 
a  sort  of  department  of  preaching.  The  one-sidedness 
of  the  theory,  and  the  special  pleading  of  its  advocates, 
after  eliciting  counter  extravagances  from  Machiavel  and 
Hobbes,  drew  down,  in  the  "  Candide,"  the  withering 
mockery  of  Voltaire. 


132  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

The  appearance  of  the  first  edition  of  Foxe's  "  Acts 
and  Monuments,"  commonly  called  "  The  Book  of  Mar- 
tyrs," in  1561,  is  yet  more  an  historical  than  a  literary 
event.  Of  this  work,  filling  three  bulky  folio  volumes, 
nine  standard  editions  were  called  for  between  its  first 
publication  and  the  year  1684 ;  and  it  is  impossible  to 
exaggerate  the  effect  which  its  thrilling  narratives  of 
the  persecutions  and  burnings  of  the  Protestants  under 
Mary  had  in  weakening  the  hold  of  the  ancient  Church 
on  the  general  English  heart.  The  style  is  plain  and 
manly,  the  language  vigorous  and  often  coarse  ;  but  it 
was  thereby  only  rendered  the  more  effective  for  its  im- 
mediate purpose.  It  is  now,  indeed,  well  understood  that 
Foxe  was  a  rampant  bigot,  and,  like  all  of  his  class, 
utterly  unscrupulous  in  assertion ;  the  falsehoods,  mis- 
representations, and  exaggerations  to  which  he  gave 
circulation,  are  endless.  Take,  for  instance,  his  account 
of  the  death  of  Wolsey,  which  we  know  from  the  testi- 
mony of  George  Cavendish,  an  eye-witness,  to  be  a 
string  of  pure  unmitigated  falsehoods.  "  It  is  testified 
by  one,  yet  being  alive,  in  whose  armes  the  said  Cardi- 
nall  died,  that  his  body  being  dead  was  black  as  pitch, 
also  was  so  heavie  that  six  could  scarce  beare  it.  Fur- 
thermore, it  did  so  stinke  above  the  ground,  that  they 
were  constrained  to  hasten  the  burial  thereof  in  the 
night  season  before  it  was  day.  At  the  which  burial 
such  a  tempest  with  such  a  stinke  there  arose,  that  all 
the  torches  went  out,  and  so  hee  was  throwne  into  the 
tombe,  and  there  was  laied."  Such  foul  slanderous 
hearsays  it  was  Foxe's  delight  and  care  to  incorporate 
by  dozens  in  his  work :  no  weapon  came  amiss,  if  a 
Catholic  prelate  was  the  object  aimed  at.  Mr.  Maitland, 
in  a  series  of  pamphlets,1  has  examined  a  number  of 

1  The  first  of  the  series  was  entitled,  Six  Letters  on  Foxe's  Acts 
and  Monuments,  1837. 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.'  133 

these,  proved  their  falsehood,  and  established  the  gen- 
eral unreliability  of  the  martyrologist.  Nevertheless 
the  book  achieved  its  end,  and  perhaps  deserved  to  do 
so ;  since  the  cruelties  of  the  Marian  persecution  were, 
after  all,  indisputable  facts,  and  a  detailed  and  spicy 
narrative  of  these  horrors,  by  one  who  was  not  cool 
enough  to  mince  his  words  or  weigh  his  statements, 
could  alone  inspire  the  general  population  with  that 
abhorrence  for  the  Roman  Catholic  persecution  of  Prot- 
estants, which  was  the  necessary  germ  whence  grew  the 
principle  that  condemned  religious  persecution  alto- 
gether. 

The  first  volume,  beginning  with  the  persecutions 
directed  against  the  early  Church,  professes  to  trace, 
according  to  a  favorite  doctrine  of  the  Reformers,  the 
history  of  a  faithful  and  suffering  remnant,  —  the  pure 
Church  of  Christ,  which  retained  the  unadulterated 
gospel  in  the  midst  of  the  idolatrous  corruptions  intro- 
duced by  the  official  Church,  down  across  the  dark  and 
middle  ages,  through  the  Waldenses,  the  Albigenses, 
Wyclif,  Huss,  and  Oldcastle,  to  the  brighter  times  of 
Luther  and  Cranmer.  This  volume  ends  with  the  acces- 
sion of  Henry  VIII.  The  second  volume  includes  the 
reigns  of  Henry  VIII.  and  Edward  VI. ;  the  third  is 
chiefly  taken  up  with  the  records  of  the  persecution 
under  Mary. 

Theology :  Jewel,  Hooker,  Andrewes,  Translations  of  the  Bible. 

In  the  grave  works  resulting  from  profound  thought 
and  learning,  not  less  than  in  the  creations  of  the  ima- 
ginative faculty,  the  buoyant  and  progressive  character 
of  the  period  may  be  traced.  To  speak  first  of  theology : 
even  the  Catholic  controversialists,  whose  business  it 
was  to  dam  up  the  torrent,  seem  to  catch  the  contagion 

of  the  time's  enthusiasm.     Allen  and  Parsons  wrote  and 
12 


134  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

combated  with  a  hopeful  pugnacity,  not  found  in  the 
Gothers  and  Challoners  of  a  later  age.  Driven  from 
the  old  universities,  they  founded  English  colleges  for 
the  education  of  priests  at  Rome  and  Douay;  they 
labored  to  keep  up  their  communications  all  over  Eng- 
land ;  they  formed  plots ;  they  exposed  the  doctrinal 
and  liturgical  compromises  in  which  the  new  Anglican 
Church  had  its  beginning  ;  they  would  not  believe  but 
that  all  would  ultimately  come  right  again,  and  the 
nation  repent  of  its  wild  aberrations  from  Catholic  and 
papal  unity. 

The  partisans  of  the  Reformation  split,  as  the  reign 
went  on,  into  two  great  sections,  —  the  Puritans,  and  the 
Church  party,  or  Prelatists,  as  they  were  nicknamed  by 
their  opponents.  The  leading  men  among  the  former 
had  been  in  exile  during  the  persecution  in  Mary's 
reign,  and  returned  home  full  of  admiration  for  the  doc- 
trines and  church  polity  of  Calvin,  which  last  they  had 
seen  in  full  operation  at  Geneva.  Jewel,  Bishop  of 
Salisbury,  was  one  of  these.  His  famous  "  Apology," 
published  in  1562,  is  Calvinistic  in  its  theology ;  but  the 
fact  of  his  being  able,  though  with  some  scruples  of 
conscience,  to  accept  a  bishopric,  proves  that  the  differ- 
ences between  the  two  parties  about  Church  govern- 
ment were  not  as  yet  held  to  be  vital.  "  The  Apology," 
which  was  directed  against  Rome,  and  originally  written 
in  Latin,  drew  forth  a  reply  from  the  Jesuit  Harding ;  to 
which  Jewel  rejoined,  in  his  "  Defence  of  the  Apology," 
a  long  and  labored  work  in  English. 

While  Grindal  was  archbishop,  the  deviations  of  the 
Puritan  clergy  from  the  established  liturgy  were  to  some 
extent  connived  at.  But  upon  the  appointment  of 
Whitgift,  in  1583,  a  man  of  great  energy  and  a  strict 
disciplinarian,  uniformity  was  everywhere  enforced  ; 
and  the  Puritans  saw  no  alternative  before  them,  but 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  135 

either  to  accept  a  form  of  church  government  of  which 
they  doubted  the  lawfulness,  and  acquiesce  in  practices 
which  they  detested  as  relics  of  Popery  (such  as  the  sign 
of  the  cross  at  baptism,  the  use  of  vestments,  the 
retention  of  fast  and  feast  days,  &c.),  or  else  to  give  up 
their  ministry  in  the  Church.  Before  deciding  on  the 
latter  course,  they  tried  the  effect  of  putting  forth 
various  literary  statements  of  their  case.  Of  these  the 
most  important  were  the  "  Admonition  "  of  Cartwright, 
and  the  "  Ecclesiastica  Disciplina  "  of  Travers.  These 
works  drew  forth  from  the  Church  party  a  memorable 
response,  in  the  "  Ecclesiastical  Polity "  of  Richard 
Hooker.  This  celebrated  man,  who  never  attained  to  a 
higher  ecclesiastical  rank  than  that  of  a  simple  clergy- 
man in  the  diocese  of  Canterbury,  published  the  first 
four  books  of  his  treatise  of  "  Ecclesiastical  Polity  "  in 
1594  ;  the  fifth  book  followed  in  1597.  His  life  by 
Izaak  Walton  is  one  of  our  most  popular  biographies ; 
but  it  used  to  be  remarked  by  the  late  Dr.  Arnold,  that 
the  gentle,  humble,  unworldly  pastor  brought  before  us 
by  Walton  is  quite  unlike  the  strong,  majestic  character 
suggested  by  the  works  themselves.  The  general  object 
of  the  treatise  was  to  defend  the  Established  Church, 
its  laws,  rites,  and  ceremonies,  from  the  attacks  of  the 
Puritans.  These  attacks  reduced  themselves  to  two 
principal  heads ;  first,  that  the  episcopal  government  of 
the  church  and  the  temporal  status  of  bishops,  together 
with  all  laws  connected  with  and  upholding  this  system, 
as  not  being  laid  down  in  Scripture,  were  therefore 
unlawful,  and  ought  to  be  exchanged  for  the  Presby- 
terian system,  which  they  maintained  was  so  laid  down  ; 
second,  that  many  of  the  rites  and  practices  enjoined 
by  the  rubric  were  superstitious  and  Popish,  and 
ought  to  be  abolished.  To  the  first  position  Hooker 
replies  by  establishing  the  distinction  between  natural 


136  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

and  positive  law,  —  the  former  being  essentially  inimut-' 
able ;  the  latter,  even  though  commanded  by  God 
himself  for  special  purposes  and  at  particular  times, 
essentially  mutable.  Thence  he  argues,  that,  even  if 
the  Puritans  could  prove  their  Presbyterian  form  of 
church  government  to  be  laid  down  in  Scripture,  it 
would  not  follow  (since  such  form  was,  after  all,  a  part 
of  positive  law),  that  for  cogent  reasons  and  by  lawful 
authority  it  might  not  be  altered.  The  philosophical 
analysis  of  law,  which  the  course  of  his  argument  ren- 
ders necessary,  is  the  most  masterly  and  also  the  most 
eloquent  portion  of  the  treatise.  To  the  second  head 
of  objections  Hooker  replies  by  endeavoring  to  trace  all 
the  rites  arid  practices  complained  of  to  the  primitive 
and  uncorrupted  church  of  the  first  four  centuries.  His 
great  familiarity  with  the  writings  of  the  fathers  gave 
him  an  advantage  here  over  his  less  learned  opponents  ; 
yet  at  the  same  time  the  minuteness  of  the  details, 
coupled  with  the  comparative  obsoleteness  of  the  ques- 
tions argued,  renders  this  latter  portion  of  the  work  less 
permanently  valuable  than  the  first  four  books.  The 
sixth  book,  as  Mr.  Keble  has  proved,1  is  lost  to  us,  all 
but  a  few  of  the  opening  paragraphs  ;  the  remainder  of 
the  book,  as  it  now  stands,  being  a  fragment  upon  a 
totally  different  subject  from  that  treated  of  in  the 
original,  though  undoubtedly  composed  by  Hooker. 
The  seventh  and  eighth  books  belong  to  the  original 
design,  but  were  published  long  after  Hooker's  death, 
from  MSS.  left  unrevised  and  in  a  disorderly  condition. 
In  the  reign  of  James,  Dr.  Donne  and  Bishop  An- 
drewes  were  the  chief  writers  of  the  Episcopalian 
party.  The  re-action  against  the  encroaching  self- 
asserting  spirit  of  Puritanism,  joined  to  the  perception 

1  In  the  introduction  to  his  excellent  edition  of  Hooker's  Works, 
Oxford,  1842. 


ELIZABETHAN  PERIOD.  137 

that  the  controversy  with  the  Catholics  could  not  be 
carried  on  upon  the  narrow  Puritan  grounds,  nor  with- 
out reference  to  the  past  history  of  the  Church,  led  back 
about  this  time  the  ablest  and  best  men  among  the 
Anglican  divines  to  the  study  of  the  primitive  ages, 
and  the  writings  of  the  fathers.  Donne,  Andrewes, 
and  Laud,  as  afterwards  Bull,  Pearson,  Taylor,  and 
Barrow,  were  deeply  read  in  ecclesiastical  literature. 
James  I.  prided  himself  on  his  theological  profundity. 
His  "  Basilicon  Doron,"  or  advice  to  his  son  Prince 
Henry,  published  in  1599,  contains  far  more  of  theolo- 
gical argument  than  of  moral  counsel.  His  "  Apology 
for  the  Oath  of  Allegiance,"  written  in  1605,  to  justify 
the  imposition  upon  English  Catholics  of  the  new  oaths 
framed  after  the  discovery '  of  the  Gunpowder  Plot, 
drew  forth  an  answer  from  Bellarmine,  under  the 
feigned  name  of  Matthew  Tortus.  To  the  strictures  of 
the  cardinal,  a  reply  appeared  with  the  curious  title  of 
"  Tortura  Torti,"  from  the  pen  of  Lancelot  Andrewes, 
Bishop  of  Winchester.  This  good  and  able  man,  in 
whom  an  earnest  piety  was  united  to  a  quick  and 
sparkling  wit  and  an  unflagging  industry,  was  of  humble 
parentage ;  but,  by  sheer  weight  and  force  of  character, 
he  gained  the  intimacy  and  confidence  of  three  sove- 
reigns, —  Elizabeth,  James  L,  and  Charles  I.  He  was 
one  of  the  translators  of  the  Bible  in  the  time  of  James ; 
the  portion  assigned  to  him  and  his  company  being  the 
Pentateuch,  and  the  historical  books  from  Joshua  to  the 
end  of  the  Second  Book  of  Kings.  He  died  in  1626, 
and  was  lamented  in  a  beautiful  Latin  elegy  by  Milton, 
then  a  young  student  at  Cambridge. 

The  authorized  English  version  of  the  Scriptures 
was  the  work  of  the  reign  of  James.  "  Forty-seven 
persons,  in  six  companies,  meeting  at  Westminster, 

Oxford,  and  Cambridge,  distributed  the  labor  among 
12* 


138  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

them ;  twenty-five  being  assigned  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, fifteen  to  the  New,  seven  to  the  Apocrypha.  The 
rules  imposed  for  their  guidance  by  the  king  were 
designed,  as  far  as  possible,  to  secure  the  text  against 
any  novel  interpretation ;  the  translation  called  4  The 
Bishops'  Bible  '  being  established  as  the  basis,  as  those 
still  older  had  been  in  that ;  and  the  work  of  each  per- 
son or  company  being  subjected  to  the  review  of  the 
rest.  The  translation,  which  was  commenced  in  1607, 
was  published  in  1611."  l  "  The  Bishops'  Bible," 
named  in  the  above  extract,  was  a  translation  prepared 
in  the  early  part  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  under  the  super- 
vision of  Archbishop  Parker,  and  published  in  1567. 
In  this,  also,  earlier  translations  had  been  pretty  closely 
followed;  so  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
English  of  the  authorized  version  is  considerably  more 
antique  in  character  than  that  of  the  generation  in 
which  it  appeared.  Of  a  few  expressions  —  such  as 
44  wist  ye  not,"  "  strait "  for  narrow,  "  strawed," 
"  charger,"  "  emerods,"  "  receipt  of  custom,"  and  the 
like  —  the  meaning  may  perhaps  be  thus  obscured  for 
the  uneducated.  But,  on  the  whole,  the  beautiful 
simplicity  and  easy  idiomatic  flow  of  the  authorized 
version  render  it  a  people's  book,  and  a  model  for 
translators  ;  while  the  strength  and  dignity  of  its  style 
have  probably  operated  for  good  upon  English  prose 
writing  ever  since. 

Philosophy:    Lord    Bacon,  his  Method,  "  The  Advancement   of 
Learning." 

In  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
philosophy  and  science  taught  at  the  intellectual  centres 
of  the  country  —  Oxford  and  Cambridge  —  differed  little 
from  those  which  the  great  schoolmen  of  the  middle 

1  Hallain's  Literature  of  Europe,  vol.  ii.  p.  463. 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  139 

age  had  invented  or  transmitted.  That  is  to  say,  logic 
and  moral  philosophy  —  the  one  investigating  the  rea- 
soning process,  the  other  the  different  qualities  of 
human  actions  —  were  taught  according  to  the  system 
of  Aristotle ;  rhetoric  was  studied  as  a  practical  appli- 
cation of  logic ;  and  mathematics,  more  as  an  intellec- 
tual exercise,  than  as  an  instrument  for  the  investigation 
of  nature.  The  physical  sciences,  so  far  as  they  were 
studied  at  all,  were  treated  in  an  off-hand  manner,  as 
if  they  were  already  tolerably  complete ;  and  being  still 
overlaid  with  metaphysical  notions,  which  gave  the 
show  without  the  reality  of  knowledge,  were  unable  to 
make  effectual  progress.  For  instance,  the  old  fourfold 
division  of  causes  into  material,  formal,  efficient,  and 
final,  instead  of  being  regarded  as  what  it  really  is,  —  a 
useful  temporary  formula  to  introduce  clearness  into 
our  own  conceptions,  —  was  still  supposed  to  be  actually 
inherent  in  the  nature  of  things,  and  was  made  the 
basis  for  the  formation  of  distinct  departments  of  knowl- 
edge. In  the  seventeenth  century,  the  human  mind, 
even  among  the  most  advanced  communities,  had  still 
much  of  the  presumptuous  forwardness  natural  to  chil- 
dren and  savages.  The  complexity  of  natural  phe- 
nomena was  partly  unknown,  partly  under-estimated. 
Instead  of  sitting  down  humbly  as  a  disciple,  and 
endeavoring  to  decipher  here  and  there  a  few  pages  of 
Nature's  book,  man  still  conceived  himself  to  stand  im- 
measurably above  Nature,  and  to  possess  within  his  own 
resources,  if  the  proper  key  could  only  be  found,  the 
means  of  unlocking  all  her  secrets,  and  compelling  her 
subservience  to  his  wants. 

If  Bacon's  philosophical  labors  had  been  of  no  other 
service  than  to  beat  down  this  presumptuous  temper, 
and  explode  this  notion  of  the  finality  of  science,  they 
must  have  been  regarded  as  of  inestimable  value.  He 


140  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

shared  to  the  full  in  the  eager  and  sanguine  temper 
which  we  have  shown  to  be  characteristic  of  the  age  ; 
he  takes  for  his  motto  "  Plus  Ultra ;  "  he  revels  in  the 
view  of  the  immensity  of  the  field  lying  open  before  the 
human  faculties ,  and  the  titlepage  of  the  original 
edition  of  his  "  Instauratio  Magna  "  bears  the  meaning 
portraiture  of  a  ship  in  full  sail,  with  a  consort  follow- 
ing in  her  wake,  bearing  down  to  pass  between  the 
fabled  Pillars  of  Hercules,  the  limit  of  the  knowledge, 
and  almost  of  the  aspirations,  of  the  ancient  world.  He 
repeats  more  than  once  that  in  the  sciences  "  opinion 
of  store  is  found  to  be  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  want." 
He  is  unjust,  indeed,  in  attributing  this  presumptuous 
persuasion  of  the  completeness  of  science  to  Aristotle, 
whom  he  sometimes  strangely  depreciates,  even  going 
so  far  as  to  say,  that,  in  the  general  wreck  of  learning 
consequent  upon  the  invasion  of  the  empire  by  the 
barbarians,  the  flimsy  and  superficial  character  of  Aris- 
totle's system  buoyed  it  up,  when  the  more  solid  and 
valuable  works  of  the  earlier  philosophers  perished.  It 
is  true  that  those  who  had  attempted  to  philosophize, 
ever  since  the  time  of  Aristotle,  had  been  most  unduly 
influenced  by  his  great  name,  and  had  often  acquiesced 
blindly  in  his  conclusions.  Aristotle,  however,  is  not 
justly  chargeable  with  the  errors  of  his  followers. 

It  is  clear  that  Bacon  was  keenly  alive  to  the  com- 
parative worthlessness  of  all  that  had  been  done  by  the 
philosophers  who  preceded  him  towards  a  real  knowl- 
edge of  nature.  What  made  him  prize  this  knowledge 
so  highly  ?  Not  so  much  its  own  intrinsic  value,  nor 
even  its  effects  on  the  mind  receiving  it,  as  the  per^ 
suasion  which  he  felt,  that,  if  obtained,  it  would  give  to 
man  an  effective  command  over  nature.  For  his  aim  in 
philosophizing  was  eminently  practical ;  he  loved  phil- 
osophy chiefly  because  of  the  immense  utility  which  he 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  141 

felt  certain  lay  infolded  in  it,  for  the  improving  and 
adorning  of  man's  life.  This  is  the  meaning  of  the 
well-known  Baconian  axiom,  "  Knowledge  is  power." 
To  know  Nature  would  always  involve,  he  thought,  the 
power  to  use  her  for  our  own  purposes  ;  and  it  seems 
that  he  would  have  cared  little  for  any  scientific  knowl- 
edge of  phenomena  which  remained  barren  of  practical 
results. 

The  end,  therefore,  was  to  know  Nature  in  order  to 
make  use  of  her ;  from  this  end  all  previous  philosophy 
had  wandered  away,  and  lost  itself.  Let  us  try  now  to 
conceive  distinctly  what  Bacon  believed  himself  to  have 
accomplished  for  its  realization.  In  few  words,  he 
believed  that  he  had  discovered  an  intellectual  instru- 
ment of  such  enormous  power,  that  the  skilful  applica- 
tion of  it  would  suffice  to  resolve  all  the  problems  which 
the  world  of  sense  presents  to  us.  This  "new  instru- 
ment," or  "  Novum  Organum,"  he  describes  in  the 
book  so  named.  Armed  with  this,  he  considered  that 
an  ordinary  intellect  would  be  placed  on  a  par  with  the 
most  highly  gifted  minds ;  and  this  supposed  fact  he 
uses  to  defend  himself  from  the  charge  of  presumption, 
since,  he  says,  it  is  not  a  question  of  mental  gifts  or 
powers,  but  of  methods  ;  and  just  as  a  weak  man,  armed 
with  a  lever,  may,  without  presumption,  think  he  can 
raise  a  greater  weight  than  a  strong  man  using  only  his 
bare  strength,  so  the  inquirer  into  nature,  who  has 
found  out  the  right  road  or  method,  may,  without 
vanity,  expect  to  make  greater  discoveries  than  he, 
however  great  his  original  powers,  who  is  proceeding 
by  the  wrong  road.  The  instrument  thus  extolled  is 
the  Baconian  "  method  of  instances,"  of  which  it  may 
be  well  here  to  give  a  short  account. 

Let  it  be  premised  that  the  object  of  the  philosopher 
is  to  ascertain  the  form,  that  is,  the  fundamental  law, 


142  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

of  some  property  common  to  a  variety  of  natural  objects; 
He  must  proceed  thus :  First,  he  prepares  a  table  of 
instances,  in  all  of  which  the  property  is  present ;  as, 
for  example,  —  in  the  case  of  heat,  —  the  sun's  rays, 
fire,  wetted  hay,  &c.  Second,  he  prepares  a  table  of 
instances,  apparently  cognate  to  those  in  the  first  table, 
or  some  of  them,  in  which,  nevertheless,  the  given 
property  is  absent.  Thus  the  moon's  rays,  though, 
like  those  of  the  sun,  they  possess  illuminating  power, 
give  out  no  heat.  Third,  he  prepares  a  table  of  de- 
grees, or  a  comparative  table,  showing  the  different 
degrees  in  which  the  property  is  exhibited  in  different 
instances.  Fourth,  by  means  of  the  materials  accu- 
mulated in  the  three  preceding  tables,  he  constructs  a 
table  of  exclusions,  or  a  "  rejection  of  natures ;  "  that  is, 
he  successively  denies  any  property  to  be  the  form  of 
the  given  property,  which  he  has  not  found  to  be  inva- 
riably present  or  absent  in  every  instance  where  the 
latter  was  present  or  absent,  and  to  increase  and  de- 
crease as  the  latter  increased  and  decreased.  Thus,  in 
the  case  of  heat,  he  denies  light  to  be  the  form  of  heat, 
because  he  has  found  light  to  be  present  in  the  instance 
of  the  moon's  rays,  while  heat  was  absent.  The  fifth 
and  final  step  is,  to  draw  an  affirmative  conclusion,  — 
the  "  interpretation  of  nature  in  the  affirmative,"  — 
that  is,  to  affirm  that  residuary  property  which,  if  the 
process  has  been  carried  far  enough,  will  be  found  remain- 
ing when  all  others  have  been  excluded,  to  be  the  form 
of  the  given  property.  Thus  he  affirms  motion  to  be 
the  form  of  heat. 

The  weak  point  in  this  method,  or,  at  any  rate,  one 
weak  point,  seems  to  be  indicated  by  the  words  printed 
in  Italics,  "  if  the  process  has  been  carried  far  enough." 

1  Novum  Orgaimm,  Book  II.  chap.  xvii. :  "  The  form  of  heat,  or  of 
light,  means  exactly  the  same  as  the  law  of  heat,  or  the  law  of  light." 


ELIZABETHAN  PERIOD.  143 

There  would  be  no  difficulty  in  doing  this,  if  it  were 
really  such  an  easy  matter  to  break  up  every  instance 
or  concrete  phenomenon  into  the  "  natures,"  or  abstract 
properties,  entering  into  its  composition,  as  Bacon 
assumes  it  to  be.  But  how  far  is  even  modern  science, 
aided  by  all  the  resources  of  chemistry  and  electricity, 
from  having  accomplished  this  !  and  how  hopeless  was 
it,  then,  to  make  this  process  the  foundation  of  a  philo- 
sophic method,  when  chemistry  could  not  as  yet  be  said 
to  exist !  It  seems  that  Bacon  himself  partly  fell  into 
that  error,  to  which  he  rightly  ascribes  the  sterility  of 
philosophy  in  his  day,1  —  the  tendency,  namely,  to 
frame  wide  generalizations  from  insufficient  data,  and 
to  neglect  the  laborious  establishment  of  partial  or 
medial  generalizations.  Thus  it  is  that  he  is  led  to 
attempt  to  define  the  inmost  nature  of  heat,  when  as 
yet  the  materials  for  so  wide  and  difficult  a  generaliza- 
tion had  not  been  collected  —  as  they  can  only  be  col- 
lected—  by  means  of  a  searching  investigation  into  all 
the  laws  which  regulate  its  operation  and  manifestation. 
Considerations  of  this  kind,  coupled  with  the  now 
admitted  fact,  that,  fond  as  Bacon  was  of  experiments, 
he  made  and  multiplied  them  to  little  profit,  and  left  no 
important  contribution  to  any  single  branch  of  physical 
science,  induce  the  latest  editors  of  his  works,2  whose 
admirable  performance  of  their  task  marks  them  out  as 
in  every  way  competent  judges,  to  acknowledge  that 
nothing  can  be  made  of  his  peculiar  system  of  philoso- 
phy. "  If  we  have  not  tried  it,  it  is  because  we  feel 
confident  that  it  would  not  answer.  We  regard  it  as  a 
curious  piece  of  machinery,  very  subtle,  elaborate,  and 
ingenious ;  but  not  worth  constructing,  because  all  the 
work  it  could  do  may  be  done  more  easily  another 
way." 

1  Novum  Organum,  Book  II. 

2  Bacon's  Works,  edited  by  Ellis  and  Spedding. 


144  HISTORY    OF    ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

All  this  may  be  true :  still  the  claims  of  Bacon  to  the 
admiration  and  gratitude  of  his  countrymen  rest  upon 
grounds  which  nothing  alleged  here,  or  that  can  be 
alleged,  will  ever  weaken.  He  used  his  life  and  his 
genius  in  preaching  perpetually,  that  men  should  go  to 
nature,  and  investigate  the  facts;  that  in  all  matters 
cognizable  by  the  understanding,  with  the  sole  excep- 
tion of  revealed  religion,  experience,  not  authority, 
should  be  taken  as  the  guide  to  truth.  When  he  him- 
self, indeed,  went  to  nature,  the  instrument  which  he 
used  was  too  much  encumbered  with  those  metaphysi- 
cal notions,  the  futility  of  which  it  was  reserved  for  a 
later  age  to  discover,  to  permit  of  his  effecting  much ; 
but  his  general  advice  was  followed,  though  his  partic^ 
ular  method  was  found  unworkable.  It  may  be  doubted 
whether  his  influence  has  not  been  almost  too  great  in 
this  direction  :  whether  he  has  not  led  his  countrymen 
too  far  away  from  the  path  of  speculation  and  the  con- 
sideration of  general  principles ;  whether  the  incessant 
accumulation  of  observations  and  experiments,  to  which 
our  men  of  science,  as  Baconians,  have  devoted  them- 
selves ever  since  the  sixteenth  century,  has  not  been 
too  exclusively  prosecuted,  to  the  detriment  of  the 
departments  of  pure  thought.1  But,  however  this  may 
be,  the  reality  and  the  greatness  of  his  influence  can  be 
denied  by  none  who  contemplate  the  immense  practical 
benefits  which  the  prevalence  of  the  inductive  spirit, 
and  the  resort  to  experiment,  have  conferred  upon  Eng- 
land, and,  through  England,  upon  Europe  and  America. 

Again :  it  must  be  remembered,  that,  if  any  thing  was 
wanting  to  Bacon  in  exact  scientific  faculty,  it  was 
more  than  compensated  in  moral  wisdom.  Certainly, 

1  See  some  valuable  remarks  on  this  point,  in  the  chapter  on  the 
Scottish  intellect  in  the  eighteenth  century,  in  the  second  volume  of 
the  lamented  Mr.  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization. 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  145 

when  we  consider  with  what  a  grasp  of  understanding 
he  took  in  all  the  parts  of  human  society ;  how  he 
surveyed  all  its  ranks  and  subdivisions,  noting  the  ele- 
ments of  strength  and  weakness  natural  to  each ;  and, 
again,  how  profoundly  he  analyzed  the  false  appear- 
ances, or  "  idols,"  which  beset  individual  minds,  and 
prevent  them  from  attaining  to  truth,  —  the  idols  of  the 
tribe,  or  false  notions  common  to  the  race  ;  the  idols 
of  the  cave,  or  false  notions  proper  to  the  individual ; 
the  idols  of  the  market-place,  or  the  false  notions  im- 
posed upon  us  by  the  ambiguities  of  language ;  lastly, 
the  idols  of  the  theatre,  or  the  specious  theories  of  false 
philosophy,  —  when  we  review  these  and  many  other 
deep  and  subtle  thoughts  that  lie  thickly  scattered 
through  his  works,  it  is  impossible  not  to  rank  Bacon 
among  the  most  powerful  and  sagacious  thinkers  that 
have  ever  instructed  mankind. 

With  these  general  remarks  on  the  Baconian  philoso- 
phy, we  proceed  to  note  down  the  date  of  appearance, 
and  general  scope,  of  Lord  Bacon's  principal  works. 
Of  "  The  Essaj^s  "  we  have  already  spoken.1  His  phil- 
osophical views  are  contained  in  three  principal  works, 
besides  many  detached  papers  and  fragments.  The 
three  works  are,  "  The  Advancement  of  Learning," 
the  "  Instauratio  Magna,"  and  the  "  De  Augmentis 
Scientiarum."  The  first  was  composed  in  English,  and 
first  published  in  1605.  Its  general  object  was  to  take 
a  survey  of  the  whole  field  of  human  knowledge,  show- 
ing its  actual  state  in  its  various  departments,  and 
noting  what  parts  had  been  cultivated,  what  were  lying 
waste,  without,  however,  entering  upon  the  difficult 
inquiry  as  to  erroneous  methods  of  cultivation  ;  his  pur- 
pose in  this  work  being  only  "  to  note  omissions  and 
deficiencies,"  with  a  view  to  their  being  made  good  by 

i  See  p.  122. 
18 


146  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

the  labors  of  learned  men.  It  may  throw  light  on  what 
has  been  said  as  to  the  nature  of  Bacon's  method,  if 
his  mode  of  procedure  in  the  work  now  under  consider- 
ation be  examined  somewhat  more  fully. 

After  dividing  human  learning  into  three  parts,  —  his- 
tory, poetry,  and  philosophy,  corresponding  respectively 
to  the  three  principal  faculties  of  the  mind,  memory, 
imagination,  and  reason,  —  he  first  examines  how  far 
history  and  poetry  have  been  adequately  cultivated. 
Literary  history  is  noted  as  deficient,  a  remark  which 
Bacon  certainly  would  not  have  made  at  the  present 
day.  Coming  to  philosophy,  he  again  makes  a  three- 
fold division  into  divine,  natural,  and  human  philoso- 
phy. By  divine  philosophy  he  means  natural  theology, 
or  "  that  knowledge  or  rudiment  of  knowledge  concern- 
ing God,  which  may  be  obtained  by  the  contemplation 
of  his  creatures ;  which  knowledge  may  be  truly  termed 
divine  in  respect  of  the  object,  and  natural  in  respect 
of  the  light." 

Natural  philosophy  he  divides  into  two  parts,  —  the 
inquisition  of  causes,  and  the  production  of  effects ; 
speculative  and  operative  ;  natural  science  and  natural 
prudence.  Now,  the  reader,  unacquainted  with  the 
precise  light  in  which  Bacon  regarded  his  own  method, 
would  expect  to  find  him  noting  down  natural  science 
as  extremely  deficient,  and  giving  some  sketch,  by  way 
of  anticipation,  of  the  improvements  which  he  hoped  to 
introduce  into  its  cultivation.  But  he  does  nothing  of 
the  kind,  and  for  this  reason :  because  the  method  from 
which  he  expected  so~much  did  not  appear  to  him  in  the 
light  of  an  improvement  on  old  modes  of  inquiry,  but 
rather  as  a  piece  of  new  intellectual  machinery,  by  him 
first  invented.  He  does  not,  therefore,  refer  it  to  the 
philosophy  of  nature,  but,  as  we  shall  see,  to  the  phil- 
osophy of  the  human  mind.  Human  philosophy  he 


ELIZABETHAN  PERIOD.  147 

divides  into  two  parts,  — knowledge  of  man  as  an  indi- 
vidual, and  knowledge  of  man  in  society,  or  civil  knowl- 
edge. Again  :  the  knowledge  of  man  as  an  individual 
is  of  two  kinds,  as  relating  either  to  the  body  or  to  the 
mind.  To  the  first  kind  are  referred  human  anatomy, 
medicine,  &c. ;  the  second  kind  includes  knowledge  of 
the  substance  or  nature  of  the  mind,  and  knowledge  of 
its  faculties  or  functions.  And  since  these  faculties  are 
mainly  of  two  kinds,  those  of  the  understanding  and 
reason,  and  those  of  the  will,  appetite,  and  affection, 
this  part  of  human  philosophy  naturally  falls  into  the 
two  great  leading  divisions,  rational  and  moral.  What 
is  said  of  the  state  of  moral  or  ethical  philosophy  is 
exceedingly  interesting;  but  it  is  with  his  account  of 
"rational  knowledge,  or  arts  intellectual,"  that  we  have 
here  to  do.  The  first  of  these,  he  says,  is  the  "  art  of 
inquiry  or  invention,"  which,  in  that  department  of  it 
which  deals  with  arts  and  sciences,  he  notes  as  deficient, 
and  proceeds,  in  a  very  striking  passage,1  to  explain  the 
grounds  of  this  opinion.  Rejecting  the  syllogistic  method 
as  inadequate,  he  pronounces  in  favor  of  the  inductive 
method,  as  the  true  art  of  intellectual  invention,  —  the 
sole  genuine  interpreter  of  nature,  —  and  promises  to 
expound  it  on  a  subsequent  occasion.  This  promise  he 
redeemed,  partially  at  least,  by  the  publication  of  the 
"Novum  Organum,"  in  1620.  This  is  the  second  part 
of  what  he  intended  to  be  a  vast  philosophical  system, 
six  divisions,  entitled  the  "  Instauratio  Philosophise." 
The  "  De  Augmentis  Scientiarum,"  which  is  in  the  main 
a  Latin  version  of  "  The  Advancement  of  Learning," 
about  one-third  of  its  bulk  consisting  of  new  matter, 
covers  most  of  the  ground  which  the  first  of  these 
divisions  was  intended  to  occupy  ;  the  second  is  the 
"Novum  Organum."  The  third  division  was  to  consist 
1  Vol.  iii.  p.  392  ( Ellis' s  edition). 


148  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

of  a  complete  "  Historia  Naturalis,"  founded  on  the 
most  accurate  observation,  and  the  most  diligent  and 
extensive  research.  To  this  part  Bacon  only  contrib- 
uted what  he  called  his  "Centuries  of  Natural  History," 
containing  about  one  thousand  observed  facts  and  ex- 
periments ;  at  the  same  time  he  enumerated  one  hundred 
and  thirty  particular  histories  which  ought  to  be  pre- 
pared under  this  head.  The  "  Scala  Intellectus,''  or 
history  of  analytical  investigation,  was  to  form  the 
fourth  division.  By  this  appears  to  have  been  meant  a 
description  of  the  actual  processes  employed  by  the  in- 
tellect in  the  investigation  of  truth,  with  an  account  of 
the  peculiar  difficulties  and  peculiar  facilities  which  it 
encounters  on  the  road.  Of  this  part  Bacon  has  only 
written  a  few  introductory  pages.  The  fifth  division 
was  to  have  contained  samples  of  the  new  method  of 
philosophizing,  and  specimens  of  the  results  obtained, 
under  the  title,  "  Prodromi  sive  Anticipationes  Philo- 
sophise Secundse."  Two  or  three  separate  tracts  under 
this  head  are  all  that  Bacon  could  accomplish.  The 
sixth  division,  "  Philosophia  Secunda  sive  Scientia  ac- 
tiva,"  which  should  have  been  the  full  system,  properly 
digested  and  harmoniously  ordered,  of  the  new  philoso- 
phy itself,  he  despaired  of  living  to  accomplish.  Indeed, 
to  use  Mr.  Hallam's  words,  "  no  one  man  could  have 
rilled  up  the  vast  outline,  which  he  alone,  in  that  stage 
of  the  world,  could  have  so  boldly  sketched.'* 

Political  Science  ;  Buchanan,  Spenser,  Raleigh. 

It  was  impossible  but  that  the  general  intellectual 
awakening  which  characterized  the  period  should  ex- 
tend itself  to  political  science.  The  doctrines  of  civil 
freedom  now  began  to  be  heard  from  many  lips,  and  in 
every  direction  penetrated  the  minds  of  men,  produ- 
cing convictions  which  the  next  generation  was  to 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  149 

see  brought  into  action.  Not  that  these  opinions  were 
wholly  new,  even  the  most  advanced  of  them.  To  say 
nothing  of  the  ancients,  the  great  Aquinas,  in  his 
treatise  "  De  Regimine  Principum,"  had  said,  as  far 
back  as  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  that 
"  Rex  datur  propter  regnum,  et  non  regnum  propter 
regem," l  and  had  declared  the  constitutional  or  limited 
form  of  monarchy  to  be  superior  to  the  absolute  form. 
But  the  class  to  which  literature  appealed  in  the  thir- 
teenth century  was  both  too  small,  and  too  much 
absorbed  in  professional  interests,  to  admit  of  such 
views  becoming  fruitful.  After  the  invention  of  print- 
ing, and  the  revival  of  learning,  they  were  taken  up  by 
many  thinkers  in  different  parts  of  Europe,  and  rapidly 
circulated  through  the  educated  portion  of  society. 
In  1579  the  stern  old  George  Buchanan,  James  I.'s 
pedagogue,  crowned  a  long  and  adventurous  life  in 
which  his  liberal  opinions  had  brought  on  him  more 
than  one  imprisonment,  besides  innumerable  minor 
persecutions  and  troubles,  by  the  publication,  in  his 
seventy-fourth  year,  of  the  work,  "  De  Jure  Regni  apud 
Scotos."  2  This  treatise,  which  is  in  Latin,  is  in  the 
form  of  a  dialogue  between  the  author  and  Thomas 
Mai tl and,  upon  the  origin  and  nature  of  royal  authority 
in  general,  and  of  the  authority  of  the  Scottish  crown 
in  particular.  In  either  case,  he  derives  the  authority, 
so  far  as  lawful,  entirely  from  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned ;  and  argues  that  its  abuse  —  inasmuch  as  its 
possessor  is  thereby  constituted  a  tyrant  —  exposes  him 
justly  even  to  capital  punishment  at  the  hands  of  his 
people,  and  that  not  by  public  sentence  only,  but  by 
the  act  of  any  private  person.  Views  so  extreme  led 

1  "  The  king  exists  for  the  sake  of  the  kingdom,  not  the  kingdom 
for  the  sake  of  the  king." 

2  "  Upon  Scotch  Monarchical  Law." 

13* 


150  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

to  the  condemnation  and  prohibition  of  the  work  by 
the  Scottish  parliament  in  1584.  It  may  be  granted 
that  Buchanan's  close  connection  with  the  party  of  the 
regent  Murray,  whose  interest  it  was  to  create  an 
opinion  of  the  lawfulness  of  any  proceedings,  to  what- 
ever lengths  they  might  be  carried,  against  the  person 
and  authority  of  the  unhappy  queen,  then  in  confine- 
ment in  England,  was  likely  to  impart  an  extraordinary 
keenness  and  stringency  to  the  anti-monarchical  theo- 
ries supported  in  the  book.  Nevertheless  similar  views 
were  supported  in  the  sixteenth  century,  in  the  most 
unexpected  quarters.  The  Jesuit  Mariana,  for  instance, 
openly  advocates  regicide  in  certain  contingencies  ;  and 
it  was  quite  in  character  with  the  daring  temper  of  the 
age  to  demolish  the  awe  surrounding  any  power,  how- 
ever venerable,  which  thwarted  the  projects  of  either 
the  majority  or  the  most  active  and  influential  party  in 
a  state. 

Among  the  political  writings  of  this  period  there  is 
none  more  remarkable  than  Spenser's  "  View  of  the 
State  of  Ireland,"  which,  though  written  and  presented 
to  Elizabeth  about  the  year  1596,  was  not  published 
till  1633.  This  is  the  work  of  an  eye-witness,  who  was 
at  once  a  shrewd  observer  and  a  profound  thinker,  upon 
the  difficulties  of  the  Irish  question,  —  that  problem 
which  pressed  for  solution  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  is  still  unsolved  in  the  nineteenth.  Spenser  traces 
the  evils  afflicting  Ireland  to  three  sources,  connected 
respectively  with  its  laws,  its  customs,  and  its  religion  ; 
examines  each  source  in  turn ;  suggests  specific  reme- 
dial measures ,  and  finally  sketches  out  a  general  plan 
of  government  calculated  to  prevent  the  growth  of 
similar  mischiefs  for  the  future. 

In  England,  the  active  and  penetrating  mind  of 
Raleigh  was  employed  in  this  direction  among  others. 


ELIZABETHAN   PERIOD.  151 

It  is  very  interesting  to  find  him,  in  his  "  Observations 
on  Trade  and  Commerce,"  advocating  the  system  of  low 
duties  on  imports,  and  explaining  the  immense  advan- 
tages which  the  Dutch,  in  the  few  years  that  had 
elapsed  since  they  conquered  their  independence  from 
Spain,  had  derived  from  free  trade  and  open  ports. 
The  treatise  on  "  The  Prerogative  of  Parliament,"  writ- 
ten in  the  Tower,  and  addressed  to  the  king,  was 
designed  to  induce  James  to  summon  a  parliament  as 
the  most  certain  and  satisfactory  mode  of  paying  the 
crown  debts.  It  is  true,  he  adapts  the  reasoning  in 
some  places  to  the  base  and  tyrannical  mind  which  he 
was  attempting  to  influence  ;  saying,  for  example,  that, 
although  the  king  might  be  obliged  to  promise  reforms 
to  his  parliament  in  return  for  subsidies,  he  need  not 
keep  his  word  when  parliament  was  broken  up.  But 
this  Machiavelian  suggestion  may  be  explained  as  the 
desperate  expedient  of  an  unhappy  prisoner,  who  saw 
no  hope  either  for  himself  or  for  his  country  except  in 
the  justice  of  a  free  parliament,  and,  since  the  king 
alone  could  call  parliament  together,  endeavored  to 
make  the  measure  as  little  unpalatable  as  possible  to 
the  contemptible  and  unprincipled  person  who  then 
occupied  the  throne.  Much  of  the  historical  inquiry 
which  he  institutes  into  the  relations  between  former 
parliaments  and  English  kings  is  extremely  acute  and 
valuable.  In  uThe  Maxims  of  State,"  a  short  treatise, 
not  written,  like  the  one  last  mentioned,  to  serve  an 
immediate  purpose,  Raleigh's  naturally  honest  and 
noble  nature  asserts  itself.  In  this,  he  explicitly  rejects 
all  the  immoral  suggestions  of  Machiavel,  and  lays 
down  none  but  sound  and  enlightened  principles  for 
the  conduct  of  governments.  Thus,  among  the  maxims 
to  be  observed  by  an  hereditary  sovereign,  we  read  the 
following :  — 


152  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

"  15.  To  observe  the  laws  of  his  country,  and  not  to  encounter 
them  with  his  prerogative,  nor  to  use  it  at  all  where  there  is  a  law,  for 
that  it  maketh  a  secret  and  just  grudge  in  the  people's  hearts,  espe- 
cially if  it  tend  to  take  from  them  their  commodities,  and  to  bestow 
them  upon  other  of  his  courtiers  and  ministers." 

It  would  have  been  well  for  Charles  I.,  if  he  had  laid 
this  maxim  to  heart  before  attempting  to  levy  ship- 
money.  Again :  — 

"  17.  To  be  moderate  in  his  taxes  and  impositions ;  and,  when  need 
doth  require  to  use  the  subjects'  purse,  to  do  it  by  parliament,  and 
with  their  consents,  making  the  cause  apparent  to  them,  and  show- 
ing his  unwillingness  in  charging  them ;  finally,  so  to  use  it  that  it 
may  seem  rather  an  offer  from  his  subjects  than  an  exaction  by  him." 

A  political  essay,  entitled  "The  Cabinet  Council," 
was  left  by  Raleigh  in  manuscript  at  his  death,  and 
came  into  the  hands  of  Milton,  by  whom  it  was  pub- 
Rshed  with  a  short  preface.  Though  acute  and  shrewd, 
like  all  that  came  from  the  same  hand,  this  treatise  is 
less  interesting  than  .those  already  mentioned,  because 
it  enters  little  into  the  consideration  of  general  causes, 
but  consists  mainly  of  practical  maxims,  suited  to  that 
age,  for  the  use  of  statesmen  and  commanders. 

A  political  treatise,  which  was  overlooked  in  its  proper  place,  may 
be  noticed  here.  This  is  the  "  Governour"  of  Sir  Thomas  Elyot,  a 
courtier  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  The  book  is  dedicated  to  the 
king,  and  was  first  published  in  1531.  Experience,  and  reading  of  the 
ancients,  he  tells  us,  have  qualified  him,  and  inclination  incited  him, 
to  write  of  "the  form  of  a  juste  publike  weale."  Such  an  opening 
makes  us  think  of  Plato's  "Republic,"  or  More's  "Utopia;"  or,  at 
the  least,  Fortescue's  "Absolute  and  Limited  Monarchy."  But  the 
promise  was  not  kept,  nor  could  it  well  have  been  kept ;  for  who  that 
had  any  regard  for  his  life,  and  was  not  hopelessly  servile  in  nature, 
could  have  written  freely  and  fully  on  political  questions  under  the 
horrible  despotism  of  Henry  VIII.  ?  After  the  first  few  pages,  the 
author  slides  into  the  subject  of  education  for  the  remainder  of 
the  first  book ;  the  second  and  third  books,  again  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  pages,  form  an  ethical  treatise  on  virtues  and  vices,  with 
but  slight  reference  to  the  bearing  of  these  on  the  work  of  govern- 


ELIZABETHAN  PERIOD.  153 

ment.  In  the  brief  portion  which  is  political,  Elyot  argues  on  behalf 
of  ranks  and  degrees  among  men  from  the  examples  of  subordina- 
tion afforded  in  the  kingdoms  of  nature.  Superior  knowledge  he 
deems  to  be,  in  itself,  the  best  and  most  legitimate  title  to  superior 
honor.  Monarchy,  as  a  form  of  government,  he  sets  above  aristocracy 
and  democracy.  He  draws  an  argument  from  a  beehive :  — 

"  In  a  little  beaste,  whiche  of  all  other  is  most  to  be  mervailed  at, 
I  mean  the  Bee,  is  lefte  to  man  by  nature  a  perpetual  figure  of  a  just 
governaunce  or  rule;  who  have  among  them  one  principall  bee  for 
their  governour,  which  excelleth  all  other  in  greatnesse,  yet  hath  he 
no  pricke  or  stinge,  but  in  him  is  more  knowledge  than  in  the  resi- 
de we." 


154  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 


CHAPTER  V. 
CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD. 

1625-1700. 

THE  literature  of  this  period  will  be  better  under- 
stood after  a  brief  explanation  has  been  given  of  the 
political  changes  which  attended  the  fall,  restoration, 
and  ultimate  expulsion  of  the  Stuart  dynasty. 

The  Puritan  party,  whose  proceedings  and  opinions 
in  the  two  preceding  reigns  have  been  already  noticed, 
continued  to  grow  in  importance,  and  demanded  with 
increasing  loudness  a  reform  in  the  Church  establish- 
ment. They  were  met  at  first  by  a  bigotry  at  least 
equal,  and  a  power  superior,  to  their  own.  Archbishop 
Laud,  who  presided  in  the  High  Commission  Court,1 
had  taken  for  his  motto  the  word  "  thorough,"  and  had 
persuaded  himself  that  only  by  a  system  of  severity 
could  conformity  to  the  established  religion  be  enforced. 
Those  who  wrote  against,  or  even  impugned  in  conver- 
sation, the  doctrine,  discipline,  or  government  of  the 
Church  of  England,  were  brought  before  the  High 
Commission  Court,  and  heavily  fined ;  and  a  repetition 
of  the  offence,  particularly  if  any  expressions  were 
used  out  of  which  a  seditious  meaning  could  be  ex- 
tracted, frequently  led  to  an  indictment  of  the  offender 
in  the  Star  Chamber  (in  which,  also,  Laud  had  a  seat), 
and  to  his  imprisonment  and  mutilation  by  order  of 

1  Established  by  Queen  Elizabeth,  to  try  ecclesiastical  offences. 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  155 

that  iniquitous  tribunal.  Thus  Prynne,  a  lawyer,  Bast- 
wick,  a  physician,  and  Burton,  a  clergyman,  after 
having  run  the  gauntlet  of  the  High  Commission 
Court,  and  been  there  sentenced  to  suspension  from  the 
practice  of  their  professions,  fined,  imprisoned,  and  ex- 
communicated, were,  in  1632,  summoned  before  the 
Star  Chamber,  and  sentenced  to  stand  in  the  pillory,  to 
lose  their  ears,  and  be  imprisoned  for  life.  In  1633 
Leighton,  father  of  the  eminent  Archbishop  Leighton, 
was,  by  the  same  court,  sentenced  to  be  publicly 
whipped,  to  lose  both  ears,  to  have  his  nostrils  slit,  to 
be  branded  on  both  cheeks,  and  imprisoned  for  life. 
In  all  these  cases  the  offence  was  of  the  same  kind ; 
the  publication  of  some  book  or  tract,  generally 
couched,  it  must  be  admitted,  in  scurrilous  and  inflam- 
matory language,  assailing  the  government  of  the 
Church  by  bishops,  or  the  Church  liturgy  and  ceremo- 
nies, or  some  of  the  common  popular  amusements,  such 
as  dancing  and  play-going,  to  which  these  fanatics  im- 
puted most  of  the  vice  which  corrupted  society. 

To  these  ecclesiastical  grievances,  Charles  I.  took 
care  to  add  political.  By  his  levies  of  ship-money  and 
of  tonnage  and  poundage,  by  his  stretches  of  the  pre- 
rogative, by  his  long  delay  in  convoking  the  parlia- 
ment, and  many  other  illegal  or  irritating  proceedings, 
he  estranged  most  of  the  leading  politicians,  —  the 
Pyms,  Hampdens,  Seldens,  and  Hydes, — just  as  by 
supporting  Laud  he  estranged  the  commercial  and 
burgher  classes,  among  whom  Puritanism  had  its  strong- 
hold. In  November,  1640,  the  famous  Long  Parliament 
met.  The  quarrel  became  too  envenomed  to  be  com- 
posed otherwise  than  by  recourse  to  arms ;  and  in  1642 
the  civil  war  broke  out.  In  the  following  year,  London 
being  completely  in  the  power  of  the  parliament,  the 
Puritans  were  able  to  gratify  their  old  grudge  against 


156  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

the  play-writers  by  closing  all  the  theatres.  Gradually 
the  conduct  of  the  war  passed  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
more  numerous  section  of  the  Puritan  party,  the  Pres- 
byterians, into  those  of  a  section  hitherto  obscure, — 
the  Independents,  who  were  supported  by  the  genius 
of  Milton  and  Cromwell.  This  sect  originally  bore  the 
name  of  "  Brownists,"  from  their  founder,  Robert 
Browne  (1549-1630).  They  went  beyond  the  moderate 
Puritans  in  regarding  conformity  to  the  Establishment 
as  a  sin,  and  therefore  forming,  in  defiance  of  the  law, 
separate  congregations ;  but  their  later  writers,  such 
as  Milton  and  Owen,  compensated  for  this  indomitable 
sectarianism  by  maintaining  the  doctrine  of  toleration. 
Against  the  Presbyterians  they  argued  that  the  civil 
magistrate  had  no  right  to  force  the  consciences  of 
individuals.  They  took  care,  indeed,  to  make  one  ex- 
ception :  there  was  to  be  no  toleration  for  the  Roman 
Catholic  worship.  "As  for  what  you  mention  about 
liberty  of  conscience,"  said  Cromwell  to  the  delegates 
from  Ross,  "  I  meddle  not  with  any  man's  conscience. 
But,  if  by  liberty  of  conscience  you  mean  a  liberty  to 
exercise  the  mass,  I  judge  it  best  to  use  plain  dealing, 
and  to  let  you  know,  where  the  parliament  of  England 
have  power,  that  will  not  be  permitted."  1  Still  it  was 
a  great  thing  to  have  the  principle  once  boldly  asserted 
and  partially  applied ;  for  Roman  Catholics,  as  well  as 
others,  were  sure  to  benefit,  sooner  or  later,  from  its 
extension. 

In  the  civil  war,  the  clergy,  four-fifths  of  the  aris- 
tocracy and  landed  gentry,  with  the  rural  population 
depending  on  them,  and  some  few  cities,  adhered  to 
the  king.  The  poets,  wits,  and  artists,  between  whom 
and  Puritanism  a  kind  of  natural  enmity  subsisted, 
sought,  with  few  exceptions,  the  royal  camp,  where 
1  See  Carlyle's  "Letters  and  Speeches  of  Cromwell.'* 


CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD.  157 

they  were  probably  more  noisy  than  serviceable.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  parliament  was  supported  by  the 
great  middle  class,  and  by  the  yeomen  or  small  landed 
proprietors.  It  had  at  first  but  one  poet  (Wither  was 
then  a  royalist),  but  that  one  was  John  Milton. 

The  king's  cause  became  hopeless  after  the  defeat  of 
Naseby  in  1645  ;  and  after  a  lengthened  imprisonment 
he  was  brought  to  the  block  by  the  army  and  the 
Independents,  ostensibly  as  a  traitor  and  malefactor 
against  his  people ;  really,  because,  while  he  lived, 
the  revolutionary  leaders  could  never  feel  secure. 
There  is  a  significant  query  in  one  of  Cromwell's 
letters,  written  in  1648,  "  whether  '  Salus  populi 
sumrna  lex  '  be  not  a  sound  maxim." 

But  before  the  fatal  window  in  Whitehall  the  re- 
action in  the  public  sentiment  and  conscience  com- 
menced. Cromwell,  indeed,  carried  on  the  government 
with  consummate  ability  and  vigor ;  but,  after  all,  he 
represented  only  his  own  stern  genius,  and  the  victori- 
ous army  which  he  had  created ;  and  when  he  died, 
and  in  the  rivalries  of  his  generals  the  power  of  that 
army  was  neutralized,  England,  by  a  kind  of  irresisti- 
ble gravitation,  returned  to  that  position  of  defined  and 
prescriptive  freedom  which  had  been  elaborated  during 
the  long  course  of  the  middle  ages. 

At  the  Restoration  (1660),  the  courtiers,  wits,  and 
poets  returned  from  exile  not  uninfluenced,  whether 
for  good  or  evil,  by  their  long  sojourn  abroad;  the 
Anglican  clergy  saw  their  Church  established  on  a 
firmer  footing  than  ever;  and  their  Puritan  adyersa- 
ries,  ejected  and  silenced,  passed  below  the  surface  of 
society,  and  secretly  organized  the  earlier  varieties  of 
that  many-headed  British  dissent  which  now  numbers 
nearly  half  the  people  of  England  among  its  adherents. 
The  theatres  were  re-opened ;  and  every  loyal  subject. 


158  HISTOKY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

to  prove  himself  no  Puritan,  tried  to  be  as  wild, 
reckless,  and  dissolute  as  possible.  Yet  in  the  course 
of  years  the  defeated  party,  with  changed  tactics  in- 
deed, and  in  a  soberer  mood,  began  to  make  itself  felt. 
Instead  of  asking  for  a  theocracy,  they  now  agitated 
for  toleration ;  and,  renouncing  their  republicanism  as 
impracticable,  they  took  up  the  watchword  of  consti- 
tutional reform.  The  Puritans  and  Roundheads  of  the 
civil  war  re-appear  towards  the  close  of  Charles  II. 's 
reign,  under  the  more  permanent  appellation  of  the 
Whig  party. 

One  of  the  points  in  which  the  party  was  found  least 
altered  after  its  transformation  was  its  bitter  and  tradi- 
tional hostility  to  the  Church  of  Rome.  Hence,  after 
it  became  known  that  the  heir-presumptive  to  the 
crown,  James,  Duke  of  York,  had  become  a  Roman 
Catholic,  the  Whigs  formed  the  design  of  excluding 
him  on  that  ground  from  the  throne,  and  placing  the 
crown  upon  the  head  of  the  next  Protestant  heir.  The 
party  of  the  court  and  the  Cavaliers  (who  began  about 
this  time  to  be  called  Tories)  vigorously  opposed  the 
scheme,  and  with  success.  James  II.  succeeded  in 
1685,  and  immediately  began  to  take  measures  for  the 
relief  of  Catholics  from  the  many  disabilites  under 
which  they  labored.  But  he  pursued  his  object  with  all 
the  indiscretion  and  unfairness  habitual  to  his  family. 
Though  the  Whigs  had  been  defeated  and  cowed, 
though  the  great  majority  of  the  nation  desired  to  be 
loyal,  though  the  Anglican  clergy  in  particular  had 
committed  themselves  irrevocably  to  the  position  that  a 
king  ought  to  be  obeyed,  no  matter  to  what  lengths  he 
might  go  in  tyranny,  —  he  so  managed  matters  as  al- 
most to  compel  the  divines  to  eat  their  own  words,  and, 
by  forfeiting  the  affection  and  confidence  of  the  people, 
to  throw  the  game  into  the  hands  of  the  Whigs.  The 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  159 

Revolution  came  ;  James  II.  was  expelled  ;  the  Act  of 
Settlement  was  passed ;  and  the  Roman  Catholics  of 
England  again  became  an  obscure  and  persecuted 
minority,  which  for  a  hundred  years  almost  disappears 
from  the  public  gaze  and  from  the  page  of  history. 

Under  William  III.,  from  1688  to  1700,  there  was  a 
lull,  comparatively  speaking,  in  political  affairs.  The 
Toleration  Act,  passed  in  1689,  amounted  to  a  formal 
renunciation  of  the  claim  of  the  State  —  on  account  of 
which  so  much  blood  had  been  shed  in  this  and  the 
previous  century  —  to  impose  religious  uniformity  upon 
its  subjects.  Towards  the  middle  of  William's  reign 
the  Tories  began  to  recover  from  the  stunning  effects 
of  the  moral  shock  which  they  had  sustained  at  the 
Revolution  ;  and  the  modern  system  of  parliamentary 
government,  though  complicated  for  a  time  by  the  ques- 
tion of  Jacobitism,  began  to  develop  its  outlines  out  of 
the  strife  of  the  opposing  parties. 

Having  thus  reviewed  the  course  of  events,  we  pro- 
ceed to  describe  the  development  of  ideas,  as  expressed 
in  literature,  during  the  same  period. 

Poetry  :  Jonson  ;   The  Fantastic  School ;    Cowley,  Crashaw,  &c.  ; 
Milton,  Dryden,  Butler. 

Under  the  Stuarts  the  court  still,  as  in  the  days  of 
Elizabeth,  opened  its  gates  gladly  to  the  poets  and 
playwrights.  Jonson's  chief  literary  employment 
during  his  later  years  was  the  composition  of  masques 
for  the  entertainment  of  the  king  and  royal  family. 
That  quarrelsome,  reckless,  intemperate  man,  whose 
pedantry  must  have  been  insufferable  to  his  contempor- 
aries, had  it  not  been  relieved  by  such  flashes  of  wit, 
such  a  flow  of  graceful,  simple  feeling,  outlived  by  many 
years  the  friends  of  his  youth,  and  died,  almost  an  old 
man,  in  1637.  His  beautiful  pastoral  drama  of  "  The 


160  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Sad  Shepherd  "  was  left  unfinished  at  his  death.  To 
a  collection  of  his  miscellaneous  poems  he  gave  the 
strange  title  of  "  Underwoods."  No.  XV.  is  the  famous 
epitaph  on  the  Countess  of  Pembroke  :  — 

"  Underneath  this  sable  herse 
Lies  the  subject  of  all  verse, 
Sidney's  sister,  Pembroke's  mother: 
Death,  ere  thoti  hast  slain  another, 
Learned,  and  fair,  and  good  as  she, 
Time  shall  throw  a  dart  at  thee." 

A  diligent  reader  of  Jonson's  masques  will  find, 
scattered  up  and  down  them,  some  of  the  airiest  and 
prettiest  songs  in  the  world.  "  Rise,  Cynthia,  rise," 
is  one  of  these  ;  another  is  the  merry  catch  in  "  The 
Masque  of  Oberon,"  beginning, — 

"  Buz,  quoth  the  blue  flie, 
Hum,  quoth  the  bee ; 
Buz  and  hum  they  cry, 
And  so  do  we." 

Among  the  numerous  epigrams,  this  is  noteworthy :  — 

"  Underneath  this  stone  doth  lie 
As  much  beauty  as  could  die ; 
Which  in  life  did  harbor  give 
To  more  virtue  than  doth  live." 

The  younger  race  of  poets  belonged  nearly  all  to 
what  has  been  termed  by  Dryden  and  Dr.  Johnson  the 
metaphysical  school,  the  founder  of  which  in  England 
was  Donne.  But,  in  fact,  this  style  of  writing  was  of 
Italian  parentage,  and  was  brought  in  by  the  Neapolitan 
Marini.1  Tired  of  the  endless  imitations  of  the 
ancients,  which,  except  when  a  great  genius  like  that 
of  Tasso  broke  through  all  conventional  rules,  had  ever 

1  Born  1569,  died  1625;  author  of  the  Adone  and  the  Sospetto  di 
Herode. 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD.  161 

since  the  revival  of  learning  fettered  the  poetic  taste  of 
Italy,  Marini  resolved  to  launch  out  boldly  in  a  new 
career  of  invention,  and  to  give  to  the  world  whatever 
his  keen  wit  and  lively  fancy  might  prompt  to  him. 
He  is  described  by  Sismondi l  as  "  the  celebrated  inno- 
vator on  classic  Italian  taste,  who  first  seduced  the 
poets  of  the  seventeenth  century  into  that  labored  and 
affected  style  which  his  own  richness  and  vivacity  of 
imagination  were  so  well  calculated  to  recommend. 
The  most  whimsical  comparisons,  pompous  and  over- 
wrought descriptions,  with  a  species  of  poetical  punning 
and  research,  were  soon  esteemed,  under  his  authority, 
as  beauties  of  the  very  first  order."  Marini  resided  for 
some  years  in  France  ;  and  it  was  in  that  country  that 
he  produced  his  "  Adone."  His  influence  upon  French 
poetry  was  as  great  as  upon  Italian ;  but  the  vigor  and 
freedom  which  it  communicated  were  perhaps  more 
than  counterbalanced  by  the  glaring  bad  taste  which  it 
encouraged.  The  same  may  be  said  of  his  influence 
upon  our  own  poets.  Milton  alone  had  too  much  origin- 
ality and  inherent  force  to  be  carried  away  in  the 
stream ;  but  the  most  popular  poets  of  the  day  — 
Donne,  Cowley,  Crashaw,  Waller,  Cleveland,  and  even 
Dryden  in  his  earlier  efforts  —  gave  in  to  the  prevailing 
fashion ;  and,  instead  of  simple,  natural  images,  studded 
their  poems  with  conceits  (concetti).  This  explains 
why  Cowley  was  rated  by  his  contemporaries  as  the 
greatest  poet  of  his  day,  since  every  age  has  its  favorite 
fashions  in  literature  as  in  costume  ;  and  those  who 
conform  to  them  receive  more  praise  than  those  who 
assert  their  independence.  Thus  Clarendon 2  speaks  of 
Cowley  as  having  "  made  a  flight  beyond  all  men ; " 
and  Denham,  in  the  elegy  which  he  wrote  on  him,  com- 

1  Literature  of  the  South  of  Europe  (Roscoe),  vol.  ii.  p.  262. 

2  Autobiography,  vol.  i.  p.  30. 

14* 


162  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

pares  him  with  Sliakspeare,  Jonson,  and  Fletcher,  to  the 
disadvantage  of  the  three  older  poets.  A  few  specimens 
will,  however,  better  illustrate  the  metaphysical,  or,  as 
we  should  prefer  to  term  it,  the  fantastic  school,  than 
pages  of  explanation.  The  first  is  from  Donne's  metri- 
cal epistles  :  describing  a  sea-voyage,  he  says,  — 

"There  note  they  the  ship's  sicknesses,  — the  mast 
Shaked  with  an  ague,  and  the  hold  and  waist 
With  a  salt  dropsy  clogged." 


YVILU  it  sail  urupsy  uiuggeu. 

Cleveland   compares   the   stopping  of  a  fountain 
change  in  the  devolution  of  an  estate  :  — 


to  a 


"As  an  obstructed  fountain's  head 

Cuts  the  entail  off  from  the  streams, 
And  brooks  are  disinherited ; 
Honor  and  beauty  are  mere  dreams, 
Since  Charles  and  Mary  lost  their  beams." 

Cowley  talks  of  a  trembling  sky  and  a  startled  sun.  In 
the  "  Davideis  "  Envy  thus  addresses  Lucifer  :  — 

"Do  thou  but  threat,  loud  storms  shall  make  reply, 
And  thunder  echo  to  the  trembling  sky ; 
Whilst  raging  seas  swell  to  so  bold  a  height, 
As  shall  the  fire's  proud  element  affright. 
The  old  drudging  sun,  from  his  long-beaten  way, 
Shall  at  thy  voice  start,  and  misguide  the  day,"  &c. 

Dryden,  in  his  youthful  elegy  on  Lord  Hastings,  who 
died  of  the  small-pox,  describes  that  malady  under 
various  figures :  — 

"  Blisters  with  pride  swelled,  which  through^  flesh  did  sprout 
Like  rose-buds,  stuck  in  the  lily-skin  about. 
Each  little  pimple  had  a  tear  in  it, 
To  wail  the  fault  its  rising  did  commit." 

To  such  a  pitch  of  extravagance  did  talented  men 
proceed  in  their  endeavor  to  write  in  the  fashion,  in 
their  straining  after  the  much-admired  conceits! 


CIVIL   WAK    PERIOD.  163 

Of  Donne,  who  died  in  1631,  we  have  already  spoken.1 
The  other  poets  just  mentioned  of  the  fantastic  school, 
namely,  Cowley,  Crashaw,  Waller,  and  Cleveland,  to- 
gether with  Thomas  Carew,  Robert  Herrick,  Sir  John 
Suckling,  Richard  Lovelace,  George  Herbert,  Sir  John 
Denham,  and  Francis  Quarles,  were  all  ardent  royalists. 
Cowley,  like  Horace  driven  from  Athens,  — 

"Dura  sed  emovere  loco  me  tempora  grato," 

was  dislodged  from  both  universities,  in  turn,  by  the 
victorious  arms  of  the  parliament,  and,  attaching  him- 
self to  the  suite  of  Henrietta  Maria,  was  employed  by 
her  at  Paris  for  many  years  as  a  confidential  secretary. 
After  his  return  to  England  in  1656,  he  published  his 
entire  poems,  consisting  of  "  Miscellanies,"  "  Anacreon- 
tics," 2  "  Pindaric  Odes,"  "  The  Mistress,"  and  the 
"  Davideis."  In  the  preface  he  advised  peaceful  submis- 
sion to  the  existing  government ;  and  this  tenderness  to 
"  the  usurpation  "  was  maliciously  remembered  against 
him  after  the  restoration  of  monarchy.  He  was  fully 
included  in  the  act  of  oblivion  which  Charles  II.  is  said 
to  have  extended  to  his  friends.  His  last  years  were 
spent  in  retirement  at  Chertsey.  He  died  in  1667,  from 
the  effects  of  a  cold  caught  by  staying  too  long  among 
his  laborers  in  the  hay-field. 

It  will  be  more  easy  to  assign  his  proper  rank  to 
Cowley,  if  one  remembers  that  he  had  a  remarkably 
quick  and  apprehensive  understanding,  but  a  feeble 
character.  One  reads  a  few  of  his  minor  pieces,  and  is 
struck  by  the  penetrating  power  of  his  wit,  and  dazzled 
by  the  daring  flights  of  his  imagination ;  one  conceives 
such  a  man  to  be  capable  of  the  greatest  things.  Yet 
it  is  not  so ;  a  native  weakness  prevents  him  from  soar- 
ing with  a  sustained  flight  .-•  the  hue  of  his  resolution  is 
1  See  p.  90,  2  See  p.  444. 


164  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

ever  "  sicklied  o'er  with  the  pale  cast  of  thought ;  "  or, 
rather,  his  resolution  is  not  of  that  tried  and  stable  qual- 
ity at  the  outset  which  would  enable  it  to  brush  away 
subsequent  and  conflicting  impulses  from  its  path.  He 
began  the  "  Davideis  "  at  Cambridge,  with  the  idea  of 
producing  a  great  epic  poem  on  a  scriptural  subject ; 
but  he  completed  no  more  than  four  cantos,  and  then 
gave  up  the  design.  It  needed  a  more  stern  determina- 
tion than  his  to  carry  through  such  a  work  to  a  success- 
ful determination.  He  felt  this,  nor  doubted  that  the 
right  poet  would  be  found.  He  says  of  the  "Da- 
videis," "  I  shall  be  ambitious  of  no  other  fruit  for  this 
weak  and  imperfect  attempt  of  mine,  but  the  opening 
of  a  way  to  the  courage  and  industry  of  some  other 
persons,  who  may  be  better  able  to  perform  it  thorough- 
ly and  successfully."  As  in  this  preface  (written  in 
1656)  he  was  endeavoring  to  conciliate  the  party  in 
power,  it  seems  not  unlikely  that  in  this  passage  he 
actually  refers  to  Milton,  who  in  more  than  one  of  his 
prose  works  had  spoken  of  his  wish  and  intention  to 
take  up  the  harp  some  day,  and  sing  to  the  Divine 
honor  "  an  elaborate  song  for  generations." 

There  was  something  in  Cowley  of  extraordinary 
power,  both  to  kindle  affection  and  to  disarm  malice. 
Never  was  any  man  more  truly  loved  by  his  friends ; 
and  this  personal  charm  may  explain  in  part  their 
excessive  admiration  of  his  genius.  But  he,  if  left  to 
himself,  preferred  solitude  ;  professing  always,  says  his 
biographer,  Sprat,  "  that  he  went  out  of  the  world,  as 
it  was  man's,  into  the  same  world,  as  it  was  nature's, 
and  as  it  was  God's."  He  once  wrote, — 

"  All  wretched  and  too  solitary  he 
Who  loves  not  his  own  company. 
He'll  feel  the  weight  of  't  many  a  day, 
Unless  he  call  in  sin  or  vanity 
To  help  to  bear't  away." 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  165 

In  truth,  a  mind  so  active  and  penetrating  as  his  could 
never  allow  time  to  hang  heavy,  or  be  unemployed. 
When,  for  example,  upon  his  return  to  England  during 
the  Protectorate,  his  friends  advised  him  to  study  medi- 
cine, his  compliance  with  their  advice,  instead  of  leading 
him  to  a  profitable  practice,  carried  him  no  farther  than 
the  pharmacopoeia;  the  subject  of  herbs  so  fascinated 
him,  that  he  wandered  on  from  the  consideration  of 
their  general  properties,  and  thence  to  the  study  of 
their  modes  and  conditions  of  growth.  From  herbs  he 
passed  on  to  flowers  ;  which  in  turn  suggested  the  study 
of  trees,  first  those  of  the  orchard,  next  those  of  the 
forest.  The  result  was  a  Latin  poem  in  six  books, 
44  Of  Plants,"  —  a  work  of  wonderful  cleverness  and 
brilliancy.  Several  hands  gladly  engaged  in  translating 
it  into  English. 

This  remarkable  fertility  and  brilliancy  of  wit  is 
perhaps  still  better  shown  by  another  work,  a  Latin 
play,  "  Naufragium  Joculare  "  (The  Comic  Shipwreck), 
which  he  wrote  and  caused  to  be  acted  at  Cambridge, 
in  his  twentieth  year.  It  is  in  the  style  of  Terence ; 
and  the  dialogue  proceeds  with  an  easy  flow  of  jest, 
anecdote,  and  repartee,  which  exhibits  Cowley's  lin- 
guistic resources  in  a  most  remarkable  light.  His  only 
other  dramatic  attempts  were,  "Love's  Riddle,"  —  a 
pastoral  comedy  which  he  composed  while  still  a  West- 
minster boy,  and  "  The  Cutter  of  Coleman  Street,"  — 
a  prose  comedy  of  no  great  merit. 

His  shorter  poems  have  now  to  be  considered ;  and  it 
is  among  these  that  we  shall  find  what  may  approach 
nearest  to  a  justification  of  the  praises  of  his  contem- 
poraries. As  to  "  The  Mistress,"  — a  collection  of  love- 
poems,  —  Cowley,  if  his  own  account  may  be  believed, 
wrote  them,  not  in  the  character  of  a  lover  impelled  to 
clothe  his  feelings  and  wishes  in  song,  but  rather  in 


166  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

that  of  a  professional  verse-maker  ;  for  poets,  he  says, 
"  are  never  thought  freemen  of  their  company,  without 
paying  some  duties,  and  obliging  themselves  to  be  true 
to  love."  These  poems  accordingly  may  be  taken  for 
metrical  exercises,  displaying  much  ingenuity,  but  no 
living  power.  One,  however,  which  is  very  gracefully 
and  happily  expressed,  and  more  carefully  rhymed  and 
measured  than  is  the  author's  wont,  shall  be  given  at  a 
future  page.1  But  it  was  the  daring  flight  which  he 
essayed  in  his  Pindaric  odes  that  most  dazzled  and 
charmed  the  age.  This  style,  which  Dryden  often 
tried,  and  Pope  and  Gray  occasionally,  was,  he  tells  us, 
accidentally  suggested  to  him  ;  the  works  of  Pindar 
having  chanced  to  fall  in  his  way  at  a  time  when  no 
other  books  were  to  be  had,  and  the  compulsory  famil- 
iarity thus  occasioned  having  led  to  a  deliberate  prefer- 
erence  for  Pindar's  irregular  metres.  But,  even  if  this 
was  the  correct  account  of  it,  it  is  certain  that  the  per- 
mitted lawlessness  of  the  metre,  in  which  long  and 
short  lines  are  mingled  together  hap-hazard,  and  rhymes 
fl,re  either  coupled,  alternate,  or  even  more  widely 
separated,  was  peculiarly  suitable  to  the  vehement  rush 
of  thoughts  which  was  ever  pressing  for  utterance 
through  Cowley's  brain,  and  which  no  adequate  solidity 
of  judgment  controlled  or  sifted.  But  Cowley  is  not 
even  regular  in  dealing  with  irregularity.  While  many 
of  his  "  Pindariques  "  preserve  a  wild  harmony  of  their 
own  amidst  all  their  flings  and  sallies,  which  is  enough 
to  satisfy  the  critical  ear,  there  are  others  in  which 
lines  occur  that  trail  their  huge  length  laboriously 
along  like  wounded  snakes,  and  by  no  possible  humor- 
ing or  contraction  of  the  syllables,  can  be  reduced  to 
harmony.  Take,  for  instance,  the  conclusion  of  the 
ode  to  Mr.  Hobbes,  a  really  fine  poem :  what  mortal 
ear  can  tolerate  the  last  line  ?  — 
1  See  p.  441. 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  167 

"  And  that  which  never  is  to  die,  forever  must  be  young." 

Dryden's  corrector  ear,  when  he  Pindaricised,  scarcely 
ever  suffered  him  to  make  such  slips. 

The  subjects  of  Cowley's  Pindaric  odes  are  very 
various.  Sometimes  he  translates  or  imitates  Pindar  or 
Horace  ;  sometimes  he  devotes  them  to  the  cause  of 
philosophy,  dedicating  one  to  Hobbes,  another  to  the 
Koyal  Society  then  recently  founded,  another  to 
Harvey  on  his  discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the 
blood.  The  ode  "  To  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,"  on 
his  marriage  with  the  daughter  of  Lord  Fairfax,  pos- 
sesses some  peculiar  interest,  as  bringing  before  us,  in 
the  day  of  his  happy  and  brilliant  youth,  the  same 
Villiers  whom  Dryden  satirized  under  the  character  of 
Zimri,  and  whose  end  afforded  a  theme  for  Pope  to 
moralize  upon  in  his  third  "  Epistle."  He -discharged 
his  loyal  duty  to  his  prince  in  the  ode  "  Upon  his  Ma- 
jesty's Restoration  and  Return."  Among  all  similar 
compositions  of  that  age,  Cowley's  Restoration  ode  is 
by  far  the  best,  because  the  most  genuine.  It  is  true 
that  his  loyalty  makes  him  depart  from  truth,  when 
Charles  II.,  or  his  father,  or  any  other  Stuart,  is  in  the 
case,  almost  as  much  as  Dryden.  But  such  exaggeration 
is  more  excusable  in  the  older  poet,  who  had  suffered 
long  years  for  the  cause  which  he  now  saw  triumphant, 
and  whose  loyal  logic  seems  to  have  almost  honestly 
reasoned  thus :  "  Being  the  rightful  king,  he  must 
be  all  that  is  excellent."  With  even  greater  sincerity, 
one  cannot  doubt,  Cowley  abhorred  the  Protector,  with 
whom  he  had  never,  like  Drj^den,  or  Waller,  or  Milton, 
been  brought  into  close  contact.  In  a  prose  "  Discourse 
concerning  the  Government  of  Oliver  Cromwell,"  he 
burst  forth  into  a  set  of  vigorous  stanzas,  pathetically 
deprecating  the  recurrence  of  such  a  horrible  tyranny 
as  the  nation  had  just  been  freed  from,  — 


168  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

"  Come  the  eleventh  plague,  rather  than  this  should  be; 
Come  sink  us  rather  in  the  sea ; 
Come  rather  pestilence,  and  reap  us  down ; 
Come  God's  sword,  rather  than  our  own ; 
Let  rather  Roman  come  again, 
Or  Saxon,  Norman,  or  the  Dane, 
In  all  the  ills  we  ever  bore, 
We  grieved,  we  sighed,  we  wept:  we  never  blushed  before. 

If  for  our  sins  the  divine  vengeance  be 

Called  to  the  last  extremity, 

Let  some  denouncing  Jonas  first  be  sent, 

To  see  if  England  will  repent : 

Methinks  at  least  some  prodigy, 

Some  dreadful  portent  from  on  high, 

Should  terribly  forewarn  the  earth, 

As  of  good  princes'  deaths,  so  of  a  tyrant's  birth." 

We  shall  have  occasion  to  notice,  farther  on,  the  very 
different  impressions  which  this  great  ruler  and  his 
policy  left  on  Dryden  and  Milton.1  One,  and  that  one 
perhaps  the  best  of  the  "  Pindariques,"  is  called  "  The 
Complaint ; "  in  the  language  of  decent,  but  firm  and 
not  undignified  remonstrance,  it  speaks  of  the  neglect 
in  which  the  gentle  poet  lay,  after  his  long  and  faithful 
service  to  the  court. 

As  a  prose  writer,  Cowley  is  copious  and  easy,  with 
much  the  same  faults  that  we  shall  have  to  notice  in 
Dryden. 

If,  after  this  examination  of  his  writings,  the  reader 
should  still  ask  wherein  lies  the  secret  of  the  extraordi- 
nary admiration  with  which  Cowley  was  regarded  by 
his  contemporaries,  I  can  only  say,  that,  so  far  as  I  can 
discover,  the  feeling  which  his  writings  excited  of  diffi- 
culties overcome,  and  various  learning  employed  in  the 
work  of  composition,  was  the  chief  incentive  to  that 
admiration.  Poetry  was  then  looked  upon  as  a  kind  of 
art  or  craft,  in  which  no  one  could  or  ought  to  excel, 

i  See  pp.  179,  184. 


CIVIL   WAK   PERIOD.  169 

who  had  not  been  regularly  instructed  in  all  the  techni- 
cal details,  and  through  a  classical  education  had  become 
familiar  at  first  hand  with  the  great  poets  of  antiquity. 
All  these  requirements  were  fulfilled  in  Cowley,  and 
they  were  undeniably  united  to  brilliant  talencs ;  so  that, 
according  to  all  the  prevailing  notions  of  the  time,  he 
could  not  fail  to  be  considered  a  great  poet.  Thus  it 
happened  that  Shakspeare,  who  was  thought  to  have 
written  easily,  employing  little  labor  and  no  learning, 
was  ranked,  even  by  able  men,  below  Ben  Jonson  ;  a 
judgment  to  our  present  ideas  wholly  incomprehensible. 
Cleveland,  for  instance,  writes  as  follows,  in  an  ode  to 
Ben  Jonson :  — 

"Shakspeare  may  make  griefs,  merry  Beaumont's  style 
Ravish  and  melt  anger  into  a  smile; 
In  winter  nights,  or  after  meals,  they  be, 
I  must  confess,  very  good  company. 
But  thou  exact' st  our  best  hours'  industry; 
We  may  read  them :  we  ought  to  study  thee ; 
Thy  scenes  are  precepts ;  every  verse  doth  give 
Counsel,  and  teach  us  not  to  laugh,  but  live." 

The  truth  is,  that  the  whole  doctrine  of  hero-worship, 
as  we  now  conceive  it,  is  modern.  Whether  they  would 
have  avowed  it,  or  not,  the  real  upshot  of  the  criticisms 
on  poetry  passed  by  most  thinking  men  in  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries,  amounted  to  a  reversal  of 
the  old  maxim,  "  Poeta  nascitur,  non  fit :  "  they  assume, 
on  the  contrary,  that  "  Poeta  fit,  non  nascitur."  The 
mysterious  spontaneity  of  genius,  which  constitutes  the 
ineffable  charm  of  the  masterpieces  of  all  great  artists, 
which  links  together  in  one  fraternity  Mozart  and 
Raphael  and  Shakspeare,  was  considered  by  critics  of 
this  class  rather  as  a  disqualification  than  otherwise ; 
they  associated  and  confounded  ease  of  composition 
with  shallowness  of  endowment,  and  a  stock  of  classical 
phraseology  with  creative  power. 

15 


170  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

The  lyrics  of  Edmund  Waller  can  never  die.  When 
he  tried  the  heroic  style,  some  inherent  disqualification 
for  the  task  —  perhaps  a  want  of  true  inborn  dignity  — 
caused  him  frequently  to  sink  per  saltum  from  the  sub- 
lime to  the  ridiculous.  What  more  perfect  instance  of 
the  bathos  could  be  given  than  the  following  lines  from 
his  elaborate  elegy  "  Upon  the  Death  of  the  Lord  Pro- 
tector"?— 

"  Our  bounds'  enlargement  was  his  latest  toil, 
Nor  hath  he  left  us  prisoners  to  our  isle : 
Under  the  tropics  is  our  language  spoke, 
And  part  of  Flanders  hath  received  our  yoke." 

His  heroics  "  To  the  Queen "  are  stiff  and  artificial, 
while  those  "  To  the  Queen  Mother  of  France  "  unpleas- 
antly remind  one  of  the  "  Loyal  Effusions  "  of  Fitzger- 
am,  »-o  amusingly  parodied  in  the  "  Rejected  Addresses." 
But  now  turn  to  the  lyrics  ;  and  though  it  cannot  be 
alleged  that  their  taste  is  always  perfect,  their  diction 
always  faultless,  yet  we  are  forced  to  confess  that  the 
author  "  cum  magnis  vixisse,"  and  has  not  fallen  below 
his  opportunities.  He  treads  on  sure  ground  while  using 
to  cultivated  men  or  polished  gifted  women  the  language 
of  graceful,  airy  compliment ;  nor  are  times  lacking  when 
a  vein  of  deeper  feeling  is  touched  in  that  ordinarily 
frivolous  heart,  and  he  surprises  us  by  strains  pensive, 
musical,  and  lingering  in  the  memory  like  a  requiem  by 
Mozart.  The  song  "  To  Flavia,"  beginning,  — 

"  "Tis  not  your  beauty  can  ingage 
My  wary  heart;" 

the  well-known  lyric,  "  Go,  Lovely  Rose,"  the  song  "  To 
Chloris,"  and  that  "  To  a  very  Young  Lady,"  are  all  in 
their  several  ways  exceedingly  charming.  The  fine 
lines  "  Upon  Ben  Jonson  "  are  so  appropriate  to  Shak- 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  171 

speare,  and  so  ^appropriate  to  Jonson,  that  one  could 
almost  believe  the  heading  to  be  a  blunder.  The  genius 
of  Jonson  was,  we  are  told,  — 

"  Nor  this,  nor  that,  but  all  we  find 
And  all  we  can  imagine  in  mankind." 

Towards  the  close  of  his  long  life,  the  muse  of  Waller 
approached  with  trembling  the  mysteries  of  death  and 
personal  accountability.  He  was  past  eighty  when  he 
wrote  these  noble  lines  :  — 

"  When  we  for  age  could  neither  read  nor  write, 
The  subject  made  us  able  to  indite : 
The  seas  are  quiet  when  the  winds  give  o'er; 
So  calm  are  we  when  passions  are  no  more ; 
For  then  we  know  how  vain  it  was  to  boast 
Of  fleeting  things,  too  certain  to  be  lost. 
Clouds  of  affection  from  our  younger  eyes 
Conceal  that  emptiness  which  age  descries. 

The  soul's  dark  cottage,  battered  and  decayed, 

Lets  in  new  light  through  chinks  that  time  hath  made ; 

Stronger  by  weakness,  wiser  men  become, 

As  they  draw  near  to  their  eternal  home. 

Leaving  the  old,  both  worlds  at  once  they  view, 

Who  stand  upon  the  threshold  of  the  new." 

Waller  lived  into  the  reign  of  James  II.,  dying  in  the 
year  1687. 

Richard  Crashaw  was,  like  Cowley,  ejected  from  the 
University  of  Cambridge  by  the  Puritans,  and  deprived 
of  his  fellowship.  He  became  a  Roman  Catholic,  and, 
after  suffering  great  hardships  from  poverty  in  Paris, 
was  discovered  and  generously  aided  by  his  friend 
Cowley.  He  died  at  Loretto  in  1650,  and  was  mourned 
by  Cowley  in  one  of  the  most  moving  and  beautiful 
elegies  ever  written.  Besides  writing  many  miscella- 
neous pieces,  he  translated  the  "  Sospetto  di  Herode  "  of 
Marini.  The  unequal  texture  of  his  poetry,  and  his 


172  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

predilection  for  conceits,  have  in  his  case  also  greatly 
dimmed  a  poetical  reputation,  which  force  of  thought 
and  depth  of  feeling  might  otherwise  have  rendered  a 
very  high  one. 

Some  of  the  songs  of  this  period  seem  to  be  destined 
to,  and  may  be  held  to  deserve,  as  enduring  a  fame  as 
those  of  Beranger.  Such  are,  besides  those  by  Waller 
already  mentioned,  Carew's  "  He  that  loves  a  Rosy 
Cheek,"  Lovelace's  song  "  To  Althea,  from  Prison," 
Wither's  "  Shall  I,  wasting  in  Despair,"  and  many  more. 
Never  before  or  since  has  English  life  so  blossomed  into 
song.  Scotland  has  since  had  her  Burns,  and  Ireland 
her  Moore ;  but,  to  find  the  English  chanson  in  perfec- 
tion, we  must  go  back  to  the  seventeenth  century. 

George  Herbert,  the  brother  of  Lord  Herbert  of 
Cherbury,  is  the  author  of  religious  poetry,  conceived 
in  a  vein  which  reminds  one  of  Southwell,  only  that  it 
has  less  warmth  and  color,  and  more  depth  and  force. 
That  he  was  influenced  by  the  older  poet,  is  evident 
from  a  sonnet,  composed  in  his  seventeenth  year,  in 
which  he  rails,  exactly  in  the  manner  of  Southwell, 
against  the  abuse  by  which  poetry  is  enslaved  to  human 
instead  of  divine  love.  A  collection  of  his  poems, 
entitled  "The  Temple,"  was  published  in  1635,  two 
years  after  his  death  ;  and  a  new  series,  "  A  Priest  to 
the  Temple,"  appeared  among  his  Remains  in  1652. 
"  The  Church  Porch,"  the  introductory  poem  of  the 
first  series,  is  highly  characteristic.  The  style  is  senten- 
tious, antithetical,  often  quaint,  and  a  little  verbose  ; 
but  for  didactic  pithiness  it  cannot  easily  be  matched. 
Take  such  lines,  for  instance,  as  this,  in  relation  to 
drunkenness  and  careless  companions :  — 

"  Pick  out  of  tales  the  mirth,  but  not  the  sin ; " 
Or  this,  in  relation  to  veracity :  — 


CIVIL   WAR   PEEIOD.  173 

"  Dare  to  be  true.    Nothing  can  need  a  lie. 
A  fault,  which  needs  it  most,  grows  two  thereby ; " 

Or,  with  reference  to  the  common  neglect  of  educa- 
tion, — 

"  Some  till  their  ground,  but  let  weeds  choke  their  son ; " 

or,— 

"  Envy  not  greatness ;  for  thou  mak'st  thereby 
Thyself  the  less,  and  so  the  distance  greater." 

The  collection  is  closed  by  "  The  Church  Militant," 
a  long  poem  enunciating  the  singular  theory  (which 
was  afterwards  applied  by  Berkeley  to  "  the  course  of 
empire  "),  that  religion  always  has  and  always  will 
travel  westward.  On  account  of  the  lines,  — 

"  Religion  stands  on  tiptoe  in  our  land, 
Ready  to  pass  to  the  American  strand, "  — 

the  vice-chancellor  at  Cambridge  refused  for  some  time 
to  license  the  printing  of  the  work. 

Sir  Henry  Wotton  and  Bishop  Corbet  both  died 
before  the  breaking-out  of  the  civil  war.  Wotton's 
serious  thoughts  were  given  to  diplomacy,  but  he  wrote 
two  or  three  pretty  things.  His  "  Farewell  to  the  Van- 
ities of  the  World  "  breathes  the  detachment  of  a  her- 
mit, and  the  idealism  of  a  Platonist ;  yet  he  took  orders 
late  in  life  to  qualify  himself  for  the  comfortable  post 
of  Provost  of  Eton.  Corbet  was  a  convivial  sinner, 
with  plenty  of  good  common-sense ;  disposed  to  be 
lenient  to  the  Puritans,  not  on  principle,  but  merely 
from  his  hearty,  bluff  English  good-nature,  which  would 
not  let  him  bear  hardly  on  the  weak.  His  poetry,  like 
the  man  himself,  is  of  a  coarse  fibre.  His  "  Journey 
into  France,"  written  in  what  may  be  called  the  "  Sir 
Thopas  "*  metre,  is  sorry  doggerel.  In  his  "  Farewell 

1  From  the  Rime  of  Sir  Topas  in  the  Canterbury  Tales. 


174  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITER  ATTIRE. 

to  the  Fairies,"  this  jovial  soul,  thirsting  for  pleasure, 
sighs  for  the  good  old  mediaeval  days  of  dancing,  May- 
poles, lewdness,  and  all  sorts  of  riotous  fun,  which  the 
fairies  were  supposed  to  patronize. 

Thomas  Carew,  who  had  a  post  in  the  court  of 
Charles  I.,  was  cut  off  in  his  prime  about  the  year  1639. 
His  poems,  which  are  mostly  amatory,  are  of  a  level 
standard  of  merit ;  none  rise  very  high,  and  none  are 
altogether  bad.1  He  is  full  of  similitudes  and  conceits; 
but  they  are  less  extravagant  than  those  of  Donne  or 
Crashaw.  He  Platonizes  very  prettily  in  the  song,  — 

"  Ask  me  no  more  where  Jove  bestows." 

The  rose-form  which,  the  philosophers  would  say, 
exists,  apart  from  actuality,  in  the  eternal  archetype, 
the  one  primal  form  which  is  the  cause  of  all  forms, 
reposes,  according  to  the  philosophy  of  the  lover,  in  the 
fathomless  deep  of  his  lady's  mystic  and  heavenly 
beauty. 

William  Drtimmond  of  Hawthornden,  an  ardent 
royalist,  is  the  author  of  miscellaneous  poems  and 
sonnets,  all  bearing  the  impress  of  the  great  Eliza- 
bethan age,  alike  in  their  fulness  of  meaning  and  in 
their  elaborateness  and  want  of  simplicity. 

John  Cleveland  was  a  violent,  boisterous  royalist, 
the  Wildrake  of  real  life  and  literary  history.  Had  his 
fire  and  force  been  supported  by  a  keener  and  more 
cultivated  intellect,  he  might  have  been  a  great  poet. 
He  is  best  known  for  his  tirades  against  the  Scotch, 
whom  he  hated  both  as  Presbyterians  and  as  traitors. 
The  old  joke  against  the  Scotch,  on  account  of  their 
attachment  to  their  native  land  appearing  to  increase  in 

1  See  p.  440. 


CIVIL  WAB  PERIOD.  175 

the  ratio  of  their  distance  from  it,  was  cleverly  ex- 
pressed by  Cleveland  in  "  The  Rebell  Scot :  "  - 

"  Had  Cain  been  Scot,  God  would  have  changed  his  doom; 
Not  forced  him  wander,  but  confined  him  home." 

His  attachment  to  Episcopacy  may  be  gathered  from  the 
following  lines,  taken  from  "  The  Hue  and  Cry  after 
Sir  John  Presbyter  :  "  — 

"  Down,  Dragon-Synod  with  thy  motley  ware, 
While  we  do  swagger  for  the  Common  Prayer, 
That  dove-l:ke  embassy  that  wings  our  sense 
To  heaven's  gate  in  shape  of  innocence; 
Pray  for  the  mitred  authors,  and  defy 
These  Demi-casters  of  Divinitie. 
For,  when  Sir  John  with  Jack-of-all-trades  joyns, 
His  finger's  thicker  than  the  Prelate's  loyns." 

These  lines  are  a  fair  illustration  of  the  rough  vigor 
which  characterized  the  man. 

Sir  John  Suckling  wrote  a  few  lyrics  of  no  great 
merit.  Robert  Herrick,  after  being  ejected  by. the  par- 
liamentarians from  his  living  in  Devonshire,  came  up 
to  London,  and  published  his  poems  under  the  title  of 
"  Hesperides;  or,  Works  both  Human  and  Divine." 

The  poems  of  Herrick  are  classed  by  Mr.  Hallam  among  the 
"  poetry  of  kisses."  It  would  be  more  exact  to  say  that  they  are  the 
outcome  of  a  lazy,  amorous  temperament,  which  can  not  or  will  not 
put  time  to  better  use.  He  candidly  tells  us  that,  — 

"  He  has  seen,  and  still  can  prove, 
The  lazy  man  the  most  doth  love." 

While  the  Long  Parliament  was  making  war  and  framing  treaties, 
Herrick  could  only  talk  of  the  "parliament  of  roses."  Red-handed 
battle  was  raging  in  every  English  county ;  but  he  can  only  bemoan 
"  the  death  that  is  in  Julia's  eyes."  Herrick's  melody  is  not  invari- 
bly  perfect:  yet  there  are  not  a  few  of  his  little  poems  —  they  are  all 
very  diminutive  —  which  either  have  a  beautiful  tripping  movement,  or 
excel  in  rhythmic  evenness  and  sweetness.  The  divisions  of  the  col- 


176  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

lection,  after  certain  opening  invocations  to  gods  and  goddesses,  are, 
"  Amatory  Odes,"  "Anacreontic  and  Bacchanalian,"  and  an  "Epi- 
thalamium." 

Col.  Richard  Lovelace  wrote  a  few  pretty  things,1 
one  or  two  of  which  are  to  be  found  in  most  collec- 
tions ;  and  Sir  John  Denham,  the  intimate  friend  of 
Cowley,  wrote  the  first  English  descriptive  poem  of 
real  merit,  —  "  Cooper's  Hill." 2 

Of  Denham's  other  poems  the  chief  part  are  translations  from 
Virgil,  Cicero,  and  Mancini.  "  The  Progress  of  Learning,"  a  poem 
in  Pindaric  verse,  theorizes,  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  cavalier  who 
is  at  the  same  time  an  admirer  of  Hobbes,  on  the  obstacles  which 
have  troubled  the  advance  of  learning  and  refinement  amongst  man- 
kind. The  revival  of  learning,  and  the  discredit  fallen  on  the  "  lazy 
cells  where  superstition  bred,"  promised  a  halcyon  period;  but  the 
enemy  of  mankind,  inspiring  Loyola,  Luther,  and  Calvin  with  an 
infernal  spirit  of  bigotry,  had  dashed  those  hopes  to  the  ground, 
x^anaticism,  dislodged  from  the  monasteries,  had  taken  possession  of 
the  printing-press.  Authority  had  fallen  only  to  give  place  to  secta- 
ries and  schismatics  of  a  hundred  types,  all  quarrelling  with  one 
another,  and  inflated  with  spiritual  pride  and  a  boundless  presump- 
tion :  — 

"  But  seven  wise  men  the  ancient  world  did  know: 
We  scarce  know  seven  who  think  themselves  not  so." 

In  a  poem  on  Lord  Strafford,  Denham  calls  him 

"  Three  kingdoms'  wonder,  and  three  kingdoms'  fear." 

He  also  wrote  some  interesting  memorial  verses  "  On  Mr.  Abraham 
Cowley's  Death,  and  Burial  amongst  the  Ancient  Poets." 

Only  three  poets  took  the  Puritan  side ;  but  quality 
made  up  for  quantity.  John  Milton  was  born  in  Lon- 
don in  the  year  1608.  At  sixteen  he  was  sent  to  Cam- 
bridge, where  he  speedily  gave  proofs  of  an  astonishing 
vigor  and  versatility  of  intellect  by  the  Latin  and  Eng- 
lish compositions,  chiefly  the  former,  which  he  produced 
in  his  college  years.  In  spite  of  the  precedents  given 
i  See  p.  431.  2  See  p.  424. 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD.  177 

by  the  great  Italian  poets,  Latin  was  still  regarded  as 
the  universal  and  most  perfect  language,  not  only  for 
prose,  but  for  poetry ;  and  the  most  gifted  poets  of  the 
time,  Milton  and  Cowley,  followed  the  example  of  Yida 
and  Sanazzaro,  and  tried  their  "  'prentice  hand  "  upon 
hexameters  and  elegiacs.  In  these  exercises,  whatever 
Dr.  Johnson l  may  say,  Milton  was  singularly  success- 
ful. So  far  from  his  Latin  poems  being  inferior  to 
those  of  Cowley,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  he  does 
not  surpass  even  Vida ;  for  if  the  latter  excels  him  in 
elegance  and  smoothness,  yet  in  the  rush  of  images  and 
ideas,  in  idiomatic  strength  and  variety,  in  every  thing, 
in  short,  that  constitutes  originality,  he  is  not  to  be 
compared  to  Milton.  The  elegy  upon  Bishop  Andrewes 
is  really  a  marvel,  considering  that  it  was  the  work  of 
a  lad  of  seventeen. 

Milton,  however,  was  a  true  lover  of  his  native  lan- 
guage ;  and  in  his  Latin  pieces  he  was  but,  as  it  were, 
preluding  and  trying  his  poetic  gift,  the  full  power  of 
which  was  to  be  displayed  in  the  forms  of  his  own 
mother  tongue.  But  he  would  write  simple,  unaffected 
English,  and  be  the  slave  to  no  fashionable  style ;  what- 
ever mannerism  he  was  afterwards  to  give  way  to  was 
to  be  the  offspring  of  his  own  studies  and  peculiar 
mode  of  thought.  He  expresses  this  determination  in  a 
vacation  exercise,  composed  in  1627.  Apostrophizing 
his  native  language,  he  says,  — 

"  But  haste  thee  straight  to  do  me  once  a  pleasure, 
And  from  thy  wardrobe  bring  thy  chiefest  treasure ; 
Not  those  new-fangled  toys,  and  trimming  sleight, 
Which  takes  our  late  fantastics  with  delight ; 
But  cull  those  richest  robes,  and  gayest  attire, 
Which  deepest  spirits  and  choicest  wits  desire." 

1  In  his  Life  of  Milton,  Johnson  writes  with  an  evident  bias  of 
dislike,  which  sometimes  makes  him  unfair.  His  Tory  prejudices 
would  not  allow  him  to  be  just  to  the  poet  who  had  defended  regi- 
cide. 


178  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

The  English  language  obeyed  the  invitation ;  and  two 
years  later  appeared  the  beautiful  "  Ode  to  the  Nativi- 
ty." l  In  1634  he  wrote  the  masque  of  "  Comus." 

"  Comus  "  was  written  to  be  acted  at  Ludlow  Castle  by  the  children 
of  the  Earl  of  Bridgewater,  then  Lord  President  of  Wales.  The  two 
brothers  and  their  sister,  travelling  homewards,  lose  their  way  in  a 
thick  forest.  The  sister,  separated  accidentally  from  her  protectors,  is 
met  by  the  enchanter  Comus,  under  whom  is  represented  the  worship 
of  sense  and  pleasure.  She  resists  his  allurements,  and  refutes  his 
arguments.  Meanwhile  the  brothers  debate  the  untoward  occurrence, 
the  younger  being  much  inclined  to  fear,  while  the  elder  is  sustained 
by  his  confidence  in  his  sister's  virtue  and  u  saintly  chastity."  In 
the  end  the  sister  is  found,  and  the  enchanter  driven  away ;  but  his 
spells  have  bound  her  to  a  magic  chair,  from  which  she  can  only  be 
released  by  the  nymph  of  the  Severn  (Sabrina)  rising  from  her  watery 
bed,  and  breaking  the  charm.  The  poem  represents  the  triumph  of 
virtue  and  philosophy  over  the  power  of  the  senses.  The  imagery  is 
classical,  and  Christian  ideas,  as  such,  have  no  place :  yet  none  can 
doubt  that  the  morality  which  triumphs  in  "  Comus  "  is  really  the  mor- 
ality of  Christ  and  not  that  of  the  Stoics,  or  of  the  classical  poets.  For 
many  turns  of  phrase,  and  even  for  some  ideas,  Milton  is  indebted  to 
Fletcher's  lovely  pastoral  drama  of  "  The  Faithful  Shepherdess."  But 
there  is  a  majesty,  an  austere  and  stately  beauty,  about  this  poem, 
which  are  all  Milton's  own.  How  noble  and  lovely,  for  instance,  lines 
like  these !  — 

"  Virtue  could  see  to  do  what  Virtue  would 
By  her  own  radiant  light,  though  sun  and  moon 
Were  in  the  flat  sea  sunk; " 

Or,- 

"  How  charming  is  divine  philosophy ! 
Not  harsh  and  crabbed,  as  dull  fools  suppose, 
But  musical  as  is  Apollo's  lute, 
And  a  perpetual  feast  of  nectared  sweets, 
Where  no  crude  surfeit  reigns." 

"  L' Allegro  and  II  Penseroso,"  fair  groups  of  mirthful  and  of  pensive 
thoughts,  which  the  town-bred  poet,  intoxicated  with  the  fresh  charm 
of  country  life,  gives  voice  to  and  sings  to  his  lyre,  were  the  fruit  of 
his  stay  at  Horton  in  Buckinghamshire,  between  the  life  at  Cambridge 
and  the  journey  to  Italy. 

2  See  p.  428. 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD.  179 

All  the  rest  of  the  shorter  poems  (except  the  sonnets 
and  two  or  three  Latin  pieces)  were  in  like  manner 
composed  before  the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  war.  In 
1638  Milton  visited  Italy,  and  staid  several  months  at 
Florence,  Rome,  and  Naples,  mixing  familiarly  in  the 
literary  society  of  those  cities.  The  Italians  were 
amazed  at  this  prodigy  of  genius  from  the  remote  North, 
the  beauty  and  grace  of  whose  person  recommended 
his  intellectual  gifts.  The  Marquis  Manso,  the  friend 
of  Tasso,  said,  referring  to  the  well-known  anecdote  of 
Pope  Gregory,  that,  if  his  religion  were  as  good  as  his 
other  qualifications,  he  would  be  "  non  Anglm,  verum 
angelus"  Selvaggi,  in  a  Latin  distich,  anticipated  the 
famous  encomium  of  Dryden ; 1  and  Salsilli  declared  that 
the  banks  of  the  Thames  had  produced  a  greater  poet 
than  those  of  the  Mincio.  With  Galileo  he  had  an 
interview  at  Florence.  "  There  was  it  that  I  found  and 
visited  the  famous  Galileo,  grown  old,  a  prisoner  to  the 
Inquisition."  2  The  news  of  the  increasing  civil  dissen- 
sions at  home  recalled  him  to  England ;  and  after  his 
return  he  renounced  the  Muse,  and  flung  himself  with 
characteristic  energy  into  the  thickest  of  the  strife. 
The  Puritans,  who  as  a  class  possessed  little  learning, 
were  at  that  time  hard  pushed  by  Bishop  Hall,  Usher, 
and  other  Episcopalian  disputants ;  when  Milton  ap- 
peared in  their  ranks,  and  threw  not  only  the  force  and 
fire  of  his  genius,  but  his  varied  and  copious  learning, 
on  the  yielding  side.  "  Of  Reformation  in  England  " 

1  "  Three  poets  in  three  distant  ages  born, 
Greece,  Italy,  and  England  did  adorn : 
The  first  in  loftiness  of  thought  surpassed ; 
The  next  in  majesty ;  in  both  the  last. 
The  force  of  Nature  could  no  further  go : 
To  make  a  third,  she  joined  the  former  two." 

2  Areopagitica. 


180  HISTOKY  OF  ENGLISH  LITEKATUKE. 

(1641),  «  All  Apology  for  Smectymnuus  " J  (1642),  "  The 
Reason  of  Church  Government  urged  against  Prelaty  " 
(1641) — these  are  the  titles  of  some  of  his  principal 
contributions  to  this  controversy.  Barren  as  was  the 
strife,  as  far  as  regards  any  theoretical  results  directly 
established  by  it,  yet  whoever  wishes  to  understand  and 
feel  the  greatness  of  Milton  must  not  fail  to  study 
these  treatises.  His  prose  was  no  "  cool  element : " 
most  often  it  sparkles  and  scathes  like  liquid  metal,  yet 
softens  here  and  there,  and  spreads  out  into  calmer, 
milder  passages,  stamped  with  an  inexpressible  poetic 
loveliness.  For  many  years,  in  this  portion  of  his  life, 
Milton  gave  himself  up  to  political  and  religious  con- 
troversy ;  all  but  one  of  his  prose  works  were  composed 
between  1640  and  the  Restoration. 

Writing  of  the  sonnet,  Wordsworth  finely  says  that 
in  Milton's  hand,  — 

"  The  thing  became  a  trumpet,  whence  he  blew 
Soul-animating  strains,  alas!  too  few." 

Some  of  these  stirring  sonnets  were  composed  during 
the  war.  That  addressed  to  Cromwell  was  written  be^ 
fore  the  battle  of  Worcester,  in  1651,  but  corrected 
after  it,  as  appears  from  an  inspection  of  the  original 
manuscript  in  the  library  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
in  which  the  ninth  line  originally  stood  thus :  — 

"And  twenty  battles  more.    Yet  much  remains,"  &c. 

But  the  pen  has  been  drawn  through  the  four  first 
words,  and  over  them  is  written,  "  And  Worcester's 

1  See  p,  502.  The  word  "  Smectymnuus  "  was  formed  from  the  initial 
letters  of  the  name  of  five  Puritan  ministers  —  Stephen  Marshall,  Ed- 
mund Calamy,  Thomas  Young,  Matthew  Newcomen,  and  William 
Spurstow — who  had  written  a  pamphlet  attacking  Episcopacy,  to 
which  a  powerful  answer  had  appeared  from  the  pen  of  Bishop  Hall. 


CIVIL  WAR  PEEIOD.  181 

laureat  wreath ;  "  and  thus  the  line  stands  in  all  the 
printed  editions. 

After  the  king's  execution,  Milton  entered  the  service 
of  the  republican  government  as  Latin  secretary,  with 
the  duty  of  conducting  the  official  correspondence  with 
foreign  powers.  He  retained  this  office  under  the  Pro- 
tectorate. At  the  Restoration,  an  order  was  given  for 
his  prosecution  ;  but  ultimately  he  was  allowed  to  retire 
unharmed  into  private  life.  At  this  time  he  was  totally 
blind,  having  lost  his  eyesight,  — 

"  Over-plied 

In  liberty's  defence,  my  noble  task, 
Wherewith  all  Europe  rings  from  side  to  side ; " 

where  he  refers  to  his  "  Defensio  Populo  Anglicani," 
written  in  1651,  in  reply  to  Salmasius.  After  his  retire- 
ment, he  lived  at  Bunhill  Fields,  in  the  outskirts  of  Lon- 
don, and  took  up  again  the  cherished  literary  ambition 
of  his  youth,  which  had  been  to  write  a  great  poem, 
founded  either  upon  the  national  mythology,  or  on  some 
scriptural  subject.  There  are  several  allusions  to  this 
early  bias  of  his  mind  in  the  prose  works.  Thus,  in 
the  "  Animadversions,"  &c.,  published  in  1641,  he 
writes :  "  And  he  that  now  for  haste  snatches  up  a  plain 
ungarnished  present  as  a  thank-oifering  to  Thee  may 
then,  perhaps,  take  up  a  harp,  and  sing  thee  an  elabo- 
rate song  to  generations."  Also  in  "  The  Reason  of 
Church  Government,"  &c.,  published  in  the  same  year, 
after  mentioning  the  encouragement  and  praise  which 
the  Italian  literati  had  given  to  his  early  efforts  in  verse, 
"  I  began,"  he  says,  "  thus  far  to  assent  both  to  them 
and  divers  of  my  friends  here  at  home,  and  not  less  to 
an  inward  prompting  which  now  grew  daily  upon  me, 
that  by  labor  and  intense  study  (which  I  take  to  be  my 
portion  in  this  life),  joined  with  the  strong  propensity 

16 


182  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

of  nature,  I  might,  perhaps,  leave  something  so  written 
to  after-times  as  they  shpuld  not  willingly  let  it  die." 
The  whole  context  of  this  passage  is  of  great  interest 
for  the  light  it  throws  on  Milton's  early  conviction  of 
the  true  nature  of  the  task  to  which  his  extraordinary 
powers  constituted  his  vocation. 

The  "  Paradise  Lost " 1  was  first  published  in  1667. 
Although  the  author  —  from  what  cause  is  unknown — 
obtained  a  very  scanty  remuneration 2  from  the  publish- 
er, the  common  supposition,  that  the  sale  of  the  work 
was  extremely  slow,  is  erroneous.  Within  two  years 
from  the  date  of  publication,  thirteen  hundred  copies 
had  been  sold;  and  the  second  edition  was  exhausted 
before  1678.  But  the  name  of  Milton  was  too  hateful 
in  royalist  ears  to  allow  of  his  admirers  giving  public 
expression  to  their  feelings  under  the  Stuarts.  Addi- 
son's  papers  in  "  The  Spectator  "  first  made  the  "  Para- 
dise Lost"  known  to  a  large  number  of  readers,  and 
established  it  as  a  household  book  and  an  English 
classic. 

The  "  Paradise  Regained,"  in  four  books,  and  the 
sacred  drama  of  "Samson  Agonistes,"3  were  both 
published  in  1670.  Milton  died  in  1674,  and  was 
buried  in  the  Church  of  St.  Giles,  Cripplegate. 

George  Wither,  the  second  Puritan  poet,  was  a  native 
of  Hampshire,  and  sold  his  paternal  property  to  raise  a 
troop  of  horse  for  the  parliament.  The  diction  of  his 
earlier  poems,  particularly  his  beautiful  songs,  shows 
little  trace  of  the  influence  of  the  fantastic  school ;  but 
his  religious  poetry  is  full  of  quaintnesses  and  conceits. 

He  is  the  author  of  some  satires  entitled  "  Abuses  Stript  and 
Whipt"  (1613),  a  youthful  production,  written  apparently  for  the 

1  See  p.  344. 

2  Fifteen  pounds  for  the  first  two  editions,  numbering  three  thou> 
sand  copies. 

8  See  p.  366. 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  183 

sake  of  attracting  notice.  In  this  he  succeeded  so  well  (probably 
through  the  offence  given  by  his  onslaught  against  "clergy-pride" 
and  the  ambition  of  churchmen)  that  he  soon  found  himself  arrested, 
and  imprisoned  in  the  Marshalsea.  The  satires  —  twenty  in  number, 
contained  in  two  books  —  are  written  in  the  heroic  couplet  like  Mars- 
ton's,  and  have  much  the  same  inharmoniousness  of  metre  and 
rudeness  of  diction.  While  in  prison  he  wrote  another  satire  called 
the  "  Scourge,"  and  also  "A  Satyre,"  dedicated  to  the  king,  in  which 
he  justified  his  former  efforts.  He  also  wrote  in  prison  the  dramatic 
operetta,  if  so  it  may  be  called,  of  "The  Shepheard's  Hunting," 
which,  Mr.  Campbell  thinks,  contains  the  finest  touches  that  ever 
came  from  his  hasty  and  irregular  pen.  It  is  in  five  eclogues,  and  is 
evidently  modelled  on  the  "Shepheard's  Calender"  of  Spenser. 

The  third  poet,  Andrew  Marvell,  who  was  assistant 
to  Milton  for  eighteen  months  in  the  office  of  Latin 
secretary,  and  represented  the  borough  of  Hull  in  par- 
liament after  the  Restoration,  was  at  heart  a  thorough 
republican.  He  was  a  formidable  political  satirist,  both 
in  prose  and  verse,  on  the  Whig-Puritan  side,  during 
the  reign  of  Charles  II.  His  miscellaneous  poems  were 
published  by  his  widow  in  1681. 

Some  of  these  are  pointed,  and  not  without  grace.  The  ode  "  To 
his  coy  Mistress"  is  full  of  fancy  and  invention.  Were  our  time 
unlimited,  he  says,  your  coyness  were  no  crime:  — 

"But  at  my  back  I  always  hear 
Time's  winged  chariot  hurrying  near; 
And  yonder  all  before  us  lie 
Deserts  of  vast  eternity." 

The  definition  of  love  in  "  The  Fair  Singer,"  though  belonging  to  the 
poetry  of  conceit,  is  charmingly  clever :  — 

"  As  lines,  so  loves  oblique,  may  well 
Themselves  in  every  angle  greet; 
But  ours  so  truly  parallel, 
Though  infinite,  can  never  meet. 

Therefore  the  love  which  us  doth  bind, 

But  fate  so  enviously  debars, 
Is  the  conjunction  of  the  mind, 

And  opposition  of  the  stars." 


184  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

The  incidents  of  a  distracted  time  sometimes  color  the  verse  strange- 
ly.   We  have  the  lover  pleading  thus  with  his  mistress :  — 

"  Oh,  then,  let  me  in  time  compound,"  — 
(as  the  poor  royalists  had  to  do  for  their  lands), — 

"  And  parly  with  those  conquering  eyes." 

His  satirical  poems  are  chiefly  directed  against  the  Dutch,  the 
Scotch,  and  the  Stuarts.  The  Dutch  had  the  ill-luck  to  quarrel  with 
both  the  great  English  parties ;  and  the  Roundhead  Marvell  attacks 
them  with  a  bitterness  of  contemptuous  invective  which  the  courtier 
Dryden  could  not  surpass.  One  of  his  satires  begins  thus :  — 

"  Holland,  that  scarce  deserves  the  name  of  land, 
As  but  the  offscouring  of  the  British  sand, 
And  so  much  earth  as  was  contributed 
By  English  pilots  when  they  heaved  the  lead." 

The  poetry  of  Milton  belongs,  according  to  its  spirit, 
to  the  period  before  the  Restoration,  although  much  of 
it  was  actually  composed  later.  The  poets  whom  we 
have  now  to  consider  belong,  both  in  time  and  in  spirit, 
to  the  post-Restoration,  or  re-actionary  school.  The 
greatest  of  them  —  Dryden  —  is  the  most  prominent 
figure  in  the  literary  history  of  the  latter  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century;  and,  in  describing  his  career,  it 
will  be  easy  to  introduce  such  mention  of  his  less  gifted 
rivals  and  contemporaries  as  our  limits  will  permit  us 
to  make. 

Dryden  was  the  grandson  of  a  Northamptonshire 
baronet  and  squire,  Sir  Erasmus  Dryden,  of  Canons 
Ashby ;  but  his  relations  on  both  sides  had  adopted 
Puritan  opinions,  and  he  grew  up  to  manhood  under 
Puritan  influences.  From  Westminster  School  he  pro- 
ceeded, in  1650,  to  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  The 
seven  years  of  his  College  life  are  almost  a  blank  in  his 
history.  Of  Milton  we  know  exactly,  from  his  own 
pen,  how  he  was  employed  at  the  corresponding  period ; 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  185 

and  can  form  to  ourselves  a  tolerably  accurate  notion  of 
the  earnest,  ascetic  student,  with  his  rapt  look  and  beau- 
tiful features,  walking  in  the  cloisters  or  garden  of 
Christ's  College.  But,  of  Dry  den,  the  only  fact  of  any 
importance  that  we  know  is,  that  his  favorite  study  at 
this  time  was  history,  not  poetry.  He  had  begun,  in- 
deed, to  string  rhymes  together  many  years  before,  his 
elegy  on  Lord  Hastings  having  been  written  in  1649 ; 
but  that  feeble  and  artificial  production  must  have 
given  so  little  satisfaction,  either  to  himself  or  to  others, 
that  we  cannot  wonder  at  his  having  desisted  from 
writing  poetry  altogether.  How  unlike  Pope,  who  — 

"  Lisped  in  numbers,  for  the  numbers  came  "  ! 

In  1657  he  came  up  to  London,  probably  at  the  invi- 
tation of  his  kinsman  Sir  Gilbert  Pickering,  who  stood 
high  in  the  favor  of  Cromwell,  being,  according  to 
Shadwell,  "Noll's  lord  chamberlain."  Dryden  seems 
to  have  acted  as  secretary  or  amanuensis  to  Sir  Gilbert 
for  about  two  years.  Upon  the  death  of  Cromwell,  in 
September,  1658,  he  wrote  an  elegy,  in  thirty-six  stanzas, 
commemorating  the  exploits  and  great  qualities  of  the 
Lord  Protector.  It  is  written  in  a  manly  strain,  nor  is 
the  eulogy  undiscerning.  For  example,  — 

"For  from  all  tempers  he  could  service  draw; 

The  worth  of  each,  with  its  alloy,  he  knew; 
And,  as  the  confidant  of  Nature,  saw 
How  she  complexions  did  divide  and  brew,"  — 

lines  which  well  describe  Cromwell's  keen  discernment 
of  character.  At  the  Restoration,  the  Cavaliers  of 
course  came  into  power,  and  the  Puritan  holders  of 
office  were  ousted.  Among  the  rest,  Sir  Gilbert  Pick- 
ering had  to  retire  into  private  life,  happy  to  be  let  off 
so  easily ;  and  Dryden's  regular  occupation  was  gone- 

16 


186  HISTOKY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-eight  he  was  thrown  entirely  on 
his  own  resources.  Exactly  twenty-eight  years  later 
the  same  mischance  befell  him ;  and  on  each  occasion 
the  largeness  and  vigor  of  his  intellect  enabled  him  to 
make  head  against  the  spite  of  fortune.  Literature 
was  to  be  his  resource  ;  the  strong  impulse  of  nature 
urged  him  with  irresistible  force  to  think  and  to  write. 
But  no  kind  of  writing  offered  the  chance  of  an  imme- 
diate return,  in  the  shape  of  temporal  maintenance, 
except  the  dramatic.  To  the  drama,  therefore,  Dryden 
turned,  and  began  to  write  plays.  Between  1662  and 
1694  he  produced  twenty-eight  plays,  of  which  twelve 
were  tragedies,  four  tragi-comedies,  eight  comedies, 
three  operas,  and  one  a  masque.  Perhaps  his  fame 
would  have  suffered  but  little  if  he  had  not  written 
one.  Many  of  them  are  crammed  full  —  all  are  more  or 
less  tainted  —  with  licentious  language  and  gross  allu- 
sion ;  and  even  in  the  finest  of  the  tragedies  one  misses 
altogether  that  deep  pathos  which  forms  the  inexhausti- 
ble charm  of  "  Othello  "  or  of  "  CEdipus  Tyrannus,"  and 
which  Dryden  had  not  heart  enough  to  communicate  to 
his  work. 

In  1670  Dryden  was  appointed  poet-laureate,  in  suc- 
cession to  Sir  William  Davenant,  with  a  salary  of  two 
hundred  pounds  a  year;  raised,  towards  the  end  of 
Charles  II. 's  reign,  to  three  hundred  pounds.  During 
the  ten  following  years  he  was  almost  exclusively 
engaged  in  writing  either  plays,  or  critical  essays  on 
dramatic  subjects.  His  acknowledged  superiority 
among  men  of  letters,  and  the  dread  of  his  satire, 
caused  him  to  be  both  envied  and  hated,  passions  which 
in  those  turbulent  times  did  not  trust  to  the  pen  alone 
for  their  gratification.  Dryden  received  the  same  sort 
of  castigation  which  Pope  narrowly  escaped,  and  which 
Voltaire  met  with  at  the  hands  of  the  Due  de  Rohan. 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  187 

The  clever,  profligate  Wilmot,  Earl  of  Rochester,  who 
wished  to  be  considered  an  arbiter  of  literary  taste,  had 
set  up  by  turns  three  dramatists  —  Settle,  Crowne,  and 
Otway  —  as  rivals  to  Dryden.  But,  finding  that  the 
judgment  of  the  public  remained  intractable,  he 
attacked  Dryden  himself  in  an  imitation  of  Horace, 
published  in  1678.  The  poet  replied  vigorously  in  the 
preface  to  "All  for  Love."  Next  year  appeared  Shef- 
field's "  Essay  on  Satire,"  in  which  Rochester  was 
severely  handled.  Supposing  Dryden  to  be  the  author, 
Rochester  had  him  waylaid  one  evening  near  Covent 
Garden,  on  his  return  home  from  Wills's  coffee-house, 
and  severely  beaten  by  a  couple  of  hired  bullies.  In 
reference  to  this  mishap  Lord  Sheffield  wrote  the  follow- 
ing stupid  and  conceited  couplet :  — 

"  Though  praised  and  punished  for  another's  rhymes, 
His  own  deserve  as  much  applause  sometimes.'" 

In  the  thick  of  the  excitement  about  the  Popish  Plot, 
Dryden,  by  producing  his  play  of  "  The  Spanish  Friar," 
and  thus  pandering  to  the  blind  frenzy  of  the  hour, 
placed  himself  almost  in  a  position  of 'antagonism  to  the 
court,  since  the  Whig  promoters  of  the  plot  were  as 
little  acceptable  to  Charles  as  to  his  brother.  But  he 
soon  after  made  ample  amends  by  writing  "  Absalom 
and  Achitophel,"  the  most  perfect  and  powerful  satire 
in  our  language,  in  which  the  schemes  of  the  Whig- 
Puritan  party,  and  the  characters  of  its  leading  men,  are 
exposed  and  caricatured.1 

In  1682  appeared  "  The  Medal,"  another  satire  on  the 
Whigs;  and,  a  few  months  later,  the  second  part  of 
"  Absalom  and  Achitophel,"  of  which  only  about  two 
hundred  lines,  including  the  portraits  of  Settle  and 
Shad  well,  are  by  Dryden ;  the  rest  being  the  work  of  an 

1  See  p.  414. 


188  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

inferior  poet  named  Nahum  Tate,  one  of  those  jackals 
that  hunt  with  the  lions  of  literature,  but  bearing  marks 
of  considerable  revision  by  the  master's  hand.  The 
"  Religio  Laici,"  published  in  the  same  year,  will  be 
spoken  of  presently. 

In  February,  1685,  Charles  II.  died.  Dryden,  as  in 
duty  bound,  mourned  the  sad  event  in  the  "  Threnodia 
Augustalis,"  a  long  rambling  elegy,  in  which  occur  a 
few  fine  lines,  but  which  must  be  set  down,  on  the  whole, 
as  mendacious,  frigid,  and  profane.  Lamentation  is  not 
the  key-note  of  the  poem :  after  bewailing  the  depriva- 
tion of  so  much  virtue  and  benevolence  which  the 
world  had  sustained  in  the  death  of  Charles  II.,  the 
poet  turns  with  alacrity  to  celebrate  with  an  lo  Pcean 
the  accession  of  the  illustrious  James. 

We  are  now  come  to  the  period  of  his  life  at  which 
Dryden  changed  his  religion.  Upon  this  much-debated 
subject,  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  candid  examination 
of  the  entire  question,  which  will  be  found  in  Sir 
Walter  Scott's  life  of  the  poet.  Scott's  theory  is,  that, 
on  the  one  hand,  the  inner  workings  of  the  poet's  mind, 
as  inferred  from  his  writings,  at  last  consistently 
brought  him  to  embrace  the  Roman  Catholic  system ; 
on  the  other  hand,  that  there  were  many  external  inci- 
dents and  circumstances  in  his  position,  which,  in  a 
proportion  impossible  to  be  exactly  ascertained,  co-oper- 
ated with  those  internal  movements  to  produce  the  final 
result.  With  regard  to  the  first  point,  he  quotes  the 
poet's  own  confession  in  "  The  Hind  and  Panther :  "  — 


"  My  thoughtless  youth  was  winged  with  vain  desires ; 
My  manhood,  long  misled  by  wandering  fires, 
Followed  false  lights ;  and,  when  their  glimpse  was  gone, 
My  pride  struck  out  new  sparkles  of  her  own. 
Such  was  I ;  such  by  nature  still  I  am : 
Be  Thine  the  glory,  and  be  mine  the  shame!" 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  189 

The  "  false  lights  "  evidently  refer  to  the  Puritan 
opinions  in  which  Dryden  had  been  bred  up ;  and  the 
"  sparkles  "  struck  out  by  his  pride  as  clearly  point  to 
the  religious  speculations,  originating  in  his  own  mind, 
some  of  which  are  disclosed  in  the  "  Religio  Laici." 
This  poem,  one  of  the  few  of  Dryden's  which  were 
neither  written  professionally,  nor  dedicated  to  or  sug- 
gested by  a  patron,  betokens  a  mind  dissatisfied  with 
the  religion  in  which  it  had  been  brought  up,  and  grop- 
ing its  way  among  clashing  systems  in  vain  endeavors 
after  light.  To  one  whose  opinions  were  so  unfixed, 
who  lived,  too,  at  the  time  when  the  great  Bossuet  was 
analyzing  the  "  Variations  of  the  Protestant  Churches," 
and  the  virtues  of  Fenelon  were  the  talk  of  Europe,  it 
is  easy  to  see,  that,  when  the  time  came  at  which  it  was 
his  manifest  interest  to  consider  the  claims  of  the  reli- 
gion of  the  court,  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the  claims 
of  Rome  would  present  themselves  with  more  than 
ordinary  force,  because  they  would  not  find  the  ordinary 
obstacles  pre-existing  in  his  mind.  The  whole  subject 
is  thus  summed  up  in  the  words  of  Scott:  "While 
pointing  out  circumstances  of  proof  that  Dryden's  con- 
version was  not  made  by  manner  of  bargain  and  sale, 
but  proceeded  upon  a  sincere  though  erroneous  convic- 
tion, it  cannot  be  denied  that  his  situation  as  poet-laure- 
ate, and  his  expectations  from  the  king,  must  have  con- 
duced to  his  taking  his  final  resolution.  All  I  mean  to 
infer  from  the  above  statement  is,  that  his  interest  and 
internal  conviction  led  him  to  the  same  conclusion." 

In  1687,  some  months  after  his  conversion,  Dryden 
published  "  The  Hind  and  Panther,"  l  a  controversial 
allegory  in  heroic  metre,  in  three  books ;  the  Roman 
Church  being  represented  by  the  Hind,  and  the  Church 
of  England  by  the  Panther.  Great  was  the  clamor 

1  See  p.  398. 


190  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

raised  against  him,  and  many  were  the  answers  that 
appeared ;  among  which  "  The  City  Mouse  and  Country 
Mouse,"  the  joint  production  of  Prior  and  Charles  Mon- 
tague (afterwards  Earl  of  Halifax),  was  the  most  suc- 
cessful. At  the  Revolution,  Dryden  was  dismissed  from 
his  office  of  poet-laureate  and  royal  historiographer,  and 
had  the  mortification  of  seeing  Shadwell  the  dramatist, 
who  had  been  repeatedly  the  butt  of  his  ridicule, — 
Shadwell,  the  hero  of  "  MacFlecknoe  "  and  the  Og  of 
"  Absalom  and  Achrtophel,"  promoted  to  the  laurel. 
For  the  remainder  of  his  life,  Dryden  was  more  or  less 
harassed  by  the  ills  of  poverty ;  but  his  genius  shone 
out  brighter  as  the  end  drew  near.  "  Alexander's 
Feast,"  I  which  has  been  often  pronounced  to  be  the 
finest  lyric  in  the  language,  was  written  in  1697 ;  the 
translation  of  Virgil  appeared  in  the  same  year  ;  and 
the  "  Fables,"  which  are  translations  from  Ovid  and  Boc- 
caccio and  modernizations  of  Chaucer,  were  published  in 
March,  1700,  only  a  few  weeks  before  the  poet's  death. 

Dryden's  manner  of  life  was  essentially  that  of  a  man 
of  letters.  He  had  no  taste  for  field  sports,  and  did  not 
delight  in  rural  solitudes ;  nor,  though  he  keenly 
watched  the  conflicts  of  parties  and  the  development  of 
political  questions,  did  he  ever  mix  personally  in  the 
turmoil  of  public  life.  Though  not  reserved,  he  was 
diffident  and  shy,  and  was  far  from  cutting  that  brilliant 
figure  in  fashionable  society  which  Pope,  though  self- 
educated  and  a  parvenu,  succeeded  in  doing.  He  rose 
early,  spent  all  the  fore  part  of  the  day  in  his  own  study 
reading  or  writing ;  then  about  three  o'clock  betook 
himself  to  Wills's  coffee-house,  the  common  resort  of  a 
crowd  of  wits,  pamphleteers,  poets,  and  critics.  There, 
seated  in  his  own  arm-chair,  which  was  moved  near  the 
window  in  summer  and  to  the  fireside  in  winter,  "glori- 

i  See  p.  446. 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD.  191 

ous  John  "  drank  his  bottle  of  port,  and  ruled  the  roast, 
the  undoubted  chief  of  the  English  literary  republic. 

The  other  poets  in  this  post-Restoration  period 
deserving  of  special  mention  are,  Wentworth  Dillon, 
Earl  of  Roscommon,  author  of  the  "  Essay  on  Translated 
Verse,"  Butler,  the  author  of  "  Hudibras,"  and  Sir 
William  Davenant.  Both  Dryden  and  Pope  praised 
Roscommon,1  —  the  former  in  some  fine  lines  (written  on 
the  publication  of  the  "  Essay  "  in  1680),  the  sense  of 
which  was  rather  closely  followed  by  Pope  in  his  "  Essay 
on  Criticism."  In  both  panegyrics  the  merit  of  Roscom- 
mon is  described  to  be,  that  he  restored  in  Britain  the 
authority  of  "  wit's  fundamental  laws,"  and  superseded 
Shakpeare's  wild  beauties  and  Milton's  ruggedness  by 
establishing  the  reign  of  classic  elegance,  polish,  and 
correctness.  In  short,  Roscommon,  although  his  achieve- 

1  Dryden  writes,  after  mentioning  the  Italian  poets,  — 

"  The  French  pursued  their  steps ;  and  Britain,  last, 
In  manly  sweetness  all  the  rest  surpassed. 
The  wit  of  Greece,  the  majesty  of  Rome, 
Appear  exalted  in  the  British  loom : 
The  Muses'  empire  is  restored  again 
In  Charles's  reign,  and  by  Roscommon' s  pen." 

And  Pope,  — 

"  But  we,  brave  Britons,  foreign  laws  despised, 
And  kept  unconquered  and  uncivilized ; 
Fierce  for  the  liberties  of  wit,  and  bold, 
We  still  defied  the  Romans,  as  of  old : 
Yet  some  there  were  among  the  sounder  few, 
Of  those  who  less  presumed,  and  better  knew, 
Who  durst  assert  the  juster,  ancient  cause, 
And  here  restored  wit's  fundamental  laws. 

Such  was  Roscommon,  not  more  learned  than  good, 
With  manners  generous  as  his  noble  blood; 
To  him  the  wit  of  Greece  and  Rome  was  known, 
And  every  author's  merit  but  his  own." 


192  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

ments  in  these  respects  were  much  overrated  by  his  eulo- 
gizers,  was  a  kind  of  forerunner  of  Pope,  and  a  writer 
of  the  classical  school. 

Samuel  Butler,  the  son  of  a  Worcestershire  farmer, 
lived  for  some  years  in  early  life  in  the  house  of  Sir 
Samuel  Luke,  one  of  Cromwell's  commanders,  who  fur- 
nished him  with  the  original  of  "  Hudibras."  While 
staying  here  he  composed  his  famous  satire.  Little  is 
known  with  certainty  about  his  manner  of  life  after  the 
Restoration.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  he  was 
befriended  by  Buckingham,  and  by  Dryden's  patron  the 
Earl  of  Dorset,  and  also  that  he  passed  all  the  latter 
part  of  his  life  in  extreme  poverty.  The  king,  though 
he  was  extremely  fond  of  "  Hudibras,"  and  used  con- 
stantly to  quote  from  it,  suffered  the  author  to  starve 
with  his  usual  selfishness  and  ingratitude.  This  famous 
poem  which  is  in  substance  a  satire  on  Puritans  and  Puri- 
tanism, may  also  be  regarded  as  a  burlesque  on  romances, 
the  influence  of  "  Don  Quixote  "  being  apparent ;  and 
even  as  in  a  partial  sense  a  parody  on  "  The  Faerie 
Queen,"  the  titles  to  the  cantos  being  clearly  imitated 
from  those  of  Spenser.  The  political  importance  of  the 
poem  was  great.  It  turned  the  laugh  against  those 
terrible  Puritans,  a  handful  of  whom  had  so  long  held 
the  nation  down,  and  defeated,  more  effectually  than 
cannon-balls  or  arguments  could  have  done,  "  the  stub- 
born crew  of  errant  saints,"  — 

"  Who  build  their  faith  upon 
The  holy  text  of  pike  and  gun, 
Decide  all  controversies  by 
Infallible  artillery, 
And  prove  their  doctrine  orthodox 
By  apostolic  blows  and  knocks." 

This  famous  satire  is  in  three  parts,  containing  three  cantos  each. 
The  mere  plot  is  slight,  and  may  be  described  in  a  few  words.  The 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD.  193 

knight  Sir  Hudibras,  who  is  a  Presbyterian,  attended  by  his  squire 
Kalpho,  who  belongs  to  the  ranks  of  those  formidable  sectaries  who 
overturned  both  king  and  parliament,  sally  forth  to  put  down  a  bear- 
baiting.  They  come  upon  the  rabble  rout,  whom  the  knight  in  a 
long  speech  bids  to  disperse.  Their  leaders,  Talgol,  Orsin,  Trulla, 
&c.,  laugh  him  to  scorn;  a  fight  ensues,  full  of  droll  ups  and  downs, 
in  the  course  of  which  the  bear  gets  loose,  and  helps  the  knight  in 
putting  the  crowd  to  flight.  Presently,  however,  they  rally,  and 
return  to  the  attack ;  Trulla  defeats  and  disarms  the  knight,  and  he 
and  his  squire  are  laid  by  their  heels  in  the  parish  stocks.  Here  they 
are  visited  by  "  the  widow,"  the  object  of  the  knight's  mercenary 
affections.  A  long  conversation  ensues,  of  which  the  upshot  is,  that, 
in  consideration  of  his  swearing  to  give  himself  a  severe  flogging,  the 
widow  causes  Hudibras  to  be  released  from  the  stocks.  Next  morning 
the  knight  repairs  to  the  place  where  he  is  to  perform  the  promised 
operation.  But,  scruples  arising  within  him  concerning  the  legality 
of  keeping  his  oath,  he  refers  the  case  to  Ralpho,  who  argues  power- 
fully and  lengthily  in  favor  of  the  non-obligation  of  the  knight,  being 
a  saint,  to  keep  his  oath :  — 

"  For  all  of  us  hold  this  for  true: 
No  faith  is  to  the  wicked  due ; 
For  truth  is  precious  and  divine, 
Too  rich  a  pearl  for  carnal  swine." 

Hudibras  follows  in  the  same  strain.  The  idea  presently  occurs  to 
him  of  taking  the  whipping  vicariously,  which  Ralpho  approves,  but 
strongly  demurs  to  becoming  the  substitute  himself.  The  whipping 
thus  falls  through ;  but,  doubting  whether  the  widow  would  not  find 
him  out,  the  knight  resolves  to  go  to  Sidrophel  the  conjuror,  and  have 
his  fortune  told.  He  goes ;  but,  through  his  speaking  contemptuously 
of  Sidrophel's  art,  a  fight  ensues,  in  which  the  knight  is  victorious, 
disarming  Sidrophel,  kicking  his  man  Whackum  out  of  the  house, 
and  departing  with  much  plunder.  In  the  third  part  the  story  flags, 
and  at  last  breaks  down  altogether.  The  knight  again  endeavors  to 
make  an  impression  on  the  widow's  heart,  but  to  no  purpose.  The 
second  canto  dismisses  Hudibras  from  sight  altogether,  being  merely 
a  long  tirade  against  the  Puritanic  "  saints  "  and  their  proceedings  in 
the  civil  war.  In  the  third  and  last  canto  the  knight  seriously  thinks 
of  invoking  the  arm  of  the  law,  and  of  suing  instead  of  wooing,  but 
first  indites  an  heroical  epistle  to  the  widow,  with  whose  epistle  in 
reply  the  poem  ends. 

Such  is  the  plot ;  but  these  slight  outlines  are  filled  up,  so  as  to 
compose  a  poem  of  more  than  eleven  thousand  lines,  with  long  dia- 
logues between  Hudibras  and  his  squire,  or  the  widow,  discussing  for 
17 


194  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

the  most  part  points  of  Puritanic  casuistry.  Thus  the  whole  of  the 
first  canto  of  the  second  part  is  taken  up  with  a  conversation  between 
Hudibras  and  the  widow;  the  former  urging  his  love,  and  insisting  on 
the  duty  of  his  fair  one  to  accept  him,  the  latter  making  various 
objections  and  counter-propositions.  Again :  the  second  canto  of  the 
same  part  consists  chiefly  of  a  discussion  between  Hudibras  and 
Ralpho  on  the  obligation  of  oaths,  as  between  the  saints  and  the 
wicked.  For,  though  Hudibras  has  evidently  an  insuperable  objection 
to  fulfilling  his  oath  to  the  widow  in  regard  to  the  whipping,  yet  he 
desires  to  extricate  himself  from  the  obligation  in  such  a  manner  as 
that  his  tender  and  scrupulous  conscience  maybe  entirely  at  rest;  a 
feat,  as  Butler  would  intimate,  easy  of  accomplishment  to  the  Puri- 
tanic mind.  Ralpho's  earnestness  in  drawing  lines  of  demarcation 
between  the  saints,  amongst  whom  he  and  his  master  were,  of  course, 
shining  lights,  and  the  sinners,  is  admirably  described :  — 

"  For  as  on  land  there  is  no  beast, 
But  in  some  fish  at  sea's  exprest, 
So  in  the  wicked  there's  no  vice 
Of  which  the  saints  have  not  a  spice ; 
And  yet  that  thing  that's  pious  in 
The  one,  in  th'  other  is  a  sin." 

Again,  — 

"  He  that  imposes  an  oath  makes  it, 
Not  he  that  for  convenience  takes  it ; 
Then  how  can  any  man  be  said 
To  break  an  oath  he  never  made?" 

Sir  William  Davenant,  knighted  by  the  king  for  services  before 
Gloucester  in  1643,  is  the  author  of  "  Gondibert,"  and  a  few  minor 
poems.  The  story  of  "  Gondibert  "  is  unfinished ;  in  fact,  the  author 
himself  tells  us  in  a  postscript  that  just  one-half  of  the  poem,  as  it 
was  originally  designed,  is  presented  to  the  reader.  The  scene  is  laid 
in  Italy.  The  principal  action  is  the  courtship  of  the  Princess  Rhoda- 
lind,  daughter  of  Aribert,  king  of  Tuscany,  in  rivalry  for  whose  love 
her  most  powerful  suitors,  Duke  Gondibert  and  Prince  Oswald, 
engage  in  internecine  strife.  Davenant  seems  to  have  been  a  disciple 
of  Hobbes,  and  a  necessitarian :  we  have  the  sage  Astragon,  in  the 
second  book,  discoursing  at  great  length  to  the  purport  of  what 
follows :  — 

"  But  penitence  appears  unnatural  ; 

For  we  repent  what  Nature  did  persuade, 
And  we,  lamenting  man's  continued  fall, 
Accuse  what  Nature  necessary  made." 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  195 

Considerable  intellectual  power  and  literary  skill  are  evident  in  the 
structure  of  this  poem;  but  as  the  fictitious  narrative  is  in  itself 
wholly  uninteresting,  and  the  springs  of  passion  are  not  strongly 
touched,  the  result  is  but  moderately  satisfactory. 

Heroic  Plays,  Comedy  of  Manners,  Jeremy  Collier. 

The  position  of  the  English  drama  after  the  Restora- 
tion may  be  explained  in  a  few  words.  The  theatres 
had  been  closed  ever  since  the  Puritan  party  had  gained 
the  mastery  in  London ;  that  is,  since  the  year  1643. 
At  the  Restoration,  they  were  re-opened  as  a  matter  of 
course.  The  king  during  his  long  foreign  sojourn  had 
become  used  to  and  fond  of  theatrical  entertainments  ; 
the  courtiers  ostentatiously  shared  in  the  royal  taste ; 
and  the  long-silenced  wits  were  only  too  glad  of  a  fav- 
orable opportunity  for  displaying  their  powers.  Two 
theatres  were  licensed :  one,  which  was  under  the  direct 
patronage  of  Charles,  was  called  the  King's ;  the 
other,  which  was  patronized  by  his  brother,  was  known 
as  the  Duke's  Theatre.  Dry  den,  who,  as  has  been  men- 
tioned, took  to  writing  plays  at  this  time  for  a  liveli- 
hood, attached  himself  to  the  former.  The  taste  of  the 
king  was  for  the  French  school  in  tragedy,  and  the 
Spanish  school  in  comedy ;  and  the  influence  of  both 
is  perceptible  in  Dryden's  plays  for  many  years.  He 
could  not,  indeed,  adopt  the  French  heroic  metre  — 
the  Alexandrine  —  for  which  our  language  is  eminently 
unsuited ;  but,  retaining  the  ten-syllable  verse  of  the 
Elizabethan  dramatists,  he  followed  Corneille  and 
Racan  in  forming  it  into  rhyming  couplets.  In  the 
plot  and  manner  of  his  early  pieces,  the  Spanish  taste 
conspicuously  prevails.  The  high-flown  sentiment,  the 
daring  enterprise,  the  romantic  adventure,  of  the  days 
of  chivalry,  still  hold  their  ground  in  them, — still 
please  a  society  which  the  modern  critical  spirit  had  as 
yet  but  partially  invaded.  These  heroic  plays  of  Dry* 


L96  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

den's  are  rightly  described  by  Scott  as  "  metrical 
romances  in  the  form  of  dramas."  A  brief  outline  of 
the  plot  of  u  The  Conquest  of  Granada,"  the  most 
brilliant  and  successful  among  them,  will  best  explain 
this  definition  :  — 

The  scene  is  laid  in  the  Moorish  kingdom  of  Granada;  the  period 
is  the  fifteenth  century,  about  the  time  of  the  conquest  of  Granada 
by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  Almanzor,  a  peerless  and  invincible 
Moorish  knight-errant,  who  owns  no  master  on  earth,  and,  amongst 
other  enormous  boasts,  is  made  to  say,  — 

"I  am  as  free  as  Nature  first  made  man, 
Ere  the  base  laws  of  servitude  began, 
When  wild  in  woods  the  noble  savage  ran,"  — 

nor  has  hitherto  stooped  to  love,  breaks  in  upon  a  fight  between  two 
Moorish  factions  at  Granada,  and  by  the  might  of  his  single  arm  puts 
the  combatants  to  flight.  He  then  offers  his  services  to  the  Moorish 
king  Boabdelin.  He  transfers  his  allegiance  several  times  in  the 
course  of  the  play,  from  the  king  to  his  plotting  brother,  Abdalla, 
and  back  again ;  but  the  side,  whichever  it  is,  that  he  supports,  with 
ease  puts  its  enemies  to  the  rout.  His  love,  when  he  once  yields  to 
the  passion,  is  as  romantic  as  his  valor.  While  aiding  Abdalla,  he 
takes  captive  Almahide,  a  noble  lady  betrothed  to  Boabdelin.  The 
first  glance  of  her  eyes  causes  him  to  fall  desperately  in  love ;  but, 
hearing  of  her  engagement,  he  magnanimously  resolves  to  release 
her.  Later,  after  he  has  carried  his  sword  to  the  side  of  the  king, 
and,  having  provoked  Boabdelin  by  his  arrogance  to  order  his  guards 
to  fall  upon  him,  has  been  overpowered  and  sentenced  to  die,  Alma- 
hide  obtains  his  pardon  as  the  price  of  her  consenting  to  marry  the 
king  immediately.  Hearing  this,  Almanzor  would  have  killed  him- 
solf ;  but  Almahide  lays  her  command  upon  him  to  live,  and  he  obeys. 
After  he  has  left  the  court,  and  the  Christian  armies  are  pressing 
strongly  forward,  a  word  from  her  recalls  him ;  and  his  prowess  rolls 
back  for  a  time  the  tide  of  invasion.  In  the  concluding  battle  the 
king  is  slain;  and  Almanzor  recognizes  in  the  Spanish  general,  after 
nearly  killing  him,  his  own  father,  from  whom  he  has  been  separated 
in  infancy.  Almahide  and  he  become  Christians,  and  agree  to  marry 
when  her  year  of  widowhood  is  expired. 

Such  was  the  material  of  which  Dryden's  plays  were 
composed  down  to  the  year  1671,  —  a  notable  epoch  in 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  197 

his  dramatic  career.  The  heroic  play,  it  must  be  evi- 
dent, from  its  tumid  exaggerated  style,  offered  a  broad 
mark  for  a  clever  satirist ;  and  its  weak  points  were 
accordingly  seized  with  great  effect  by  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham  and  his  coadjutors  Sprat  and  Butler,  in  a 
play  produced  in  that  year.  This  was  the  famous  com- 
edy of  "  The  Rehearsal,"  in  which  Dry  den  himself 
figures  under  the  character  of  Bayes.  The  poet,  who, 
for  one  of  the  genus  irritibile,  was  singularly  free  from 
personal  vanity,  felt  that  he  had  received  a  home-thrust, 
remained  silent,  arid  speedily  abandoned  the  line  of  the 
heroic  drama.  But  he  did  not  forget  his  obligations  to 
Buckingham,  and  repaid  them  with  interest  a  few  years 
later,  when  he  drew  the  portrait  of  Zimri  in  "  Absalom 
and  Achitophel." 

In  his  "  Essay  of  Dramatic  'Poesy,"  published  in 
1668,  Dryden  had  earnestly  argued  that  rhyme,  which 
he  calls  the  most  noble  verse,  is  alone  fit  for  tragedy, 
which  he  calls  the  most  noble  species  of  composition  ; 
and  had  therefore,  by  implication,  condemned  the  use 
of  blank  verse  by  Shakspeare.  But  as  his  judgment 
grew  clearer,  and  his  taste  more  refined,  he  saw  cause 
for  changing  his  opinion.  Some  striking  lines  in  the 
prologue  to  the  tragedy  of  "  Aurungzebe,"  produced  in 
1675,  mark  this  point  in  the  progress  of  his  mind.  He 
is  inclined,  he  says,  to  damn  his  own  play,  — 


"  Not  that  it's  worse  than  what  before  he  writ, 
But  he  has  now  another  taste  of  wit ; 
And  to  confess  a  truth,  though  out  of  time, 
Grows  weary  of  his  long-loved  mistress,  Rhyme. 
Passion's  too  fierce  to  be  in  fetters  bound, 
And  nature  flies  him  like  enchanted  ground ; 
What  verse  can  do,  he  has  performed  in  this, 
Which  he  presumes  the  most  correct  of  his : 
But,  spite  of  all  his  pride,  a  secret  shame 
Invades  his  breast  at  Shakspeare's  sacred  name; 
17* 


198  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

And,  when  he  hears  his  godlike  Romans  rage, 
He,  in  a  just  despair,  would  quit  the  stage ; 
And  to  an  age  less  polished,  more  unskilled, 
Does  with  disdain  the  foremost  honors  yield." 

In  his  next  play,  "  All  for  Love,"  he  abandoned  rhyme, 
and  never  afterwards  returned  to  it.  The  influence  of 
Shakspeare  becomes  more  and  more  perceptible  in  the 
later  plays,  particularly  in  "  Don  Sebastian,"  the  finest 
of  all  Dryden's  tragedies,  produced  in  1690. l  Thus  the 
attempt  to  divert  the  taste  of  the  play-going  public 
from  British  to  French  and  Spanish  models  was  re- 
nounced by  the  projector  himself,  and  replaced  by  a 
steady  and  continuous  effort  to  raise  Shakspeare  to  his 
just  rank  in  the  estimation  of  his  countrymen.  It  need 
hardly  be  said  that,  up  to  the  present  time,  the  work 
of  appreciation  commenced  by  Dryden  has  gone  on  in 
an  unbroken  development. 

Thomas  Otway  is  the  author  of  nine  plays,  of  which  six  are  trage- 
dies and  three  comedies.  The  latter  are  of  small  account;  but  among 
the  tragedies  "  Cains  Marius,"  "  The  Orphan,"  and  "  Venice  Pre- 
served," hold  — especially  the  last  —  high  rank  among  English  dramas. 
The  generous,  open  character  of  the  gallant  Pierre,  the  treachery  of 
Jaffier  his  friend,  and  the  passionate  affection  of  Belvidera,  supply 
tragic  elements  which  Otway  has  worked  into  the  texture  of  his  play 
with  no  ordinary  skill.  The  interest  of  the  piece  turns  on  the  con- 
coction and  discovery  of  a  plot  to  overthrow  the  Venetian  senate,  — 
a  subject  which  was  doubtless  suggested  by  the  tremendous  excite- 
ment of  the  Popish  Plot,  then  (1681)  in  the  full  swing  of  its  career  of 
imposture,  panic,  and  judicial  murder.  One  of  the  characters, 
Antonio,  is  made  to  say,  "  I'll  prove  there's  a  plot  with  a  vengeance. 
.  .  .  That  there  is  a  plot,  surely  by  this  time  no  man  that  hath 
eyes  or  understanding  in  his  head  will  presume  to  doubt."  This  was 
the  sort  of  language  continually  in  the  mouths  of  the  vile  witnesses 
for  the  plot,  and  their  supporters  in  parliament. 

Poor  Nat  Lee,  a  sadly  irregular  liver,  wrote    eleven  tragedies, 

1  Chief  plays  of  Dryden  :  The  Indian  Queen,  Conquest  of  Gra- 
nada, Aurungzebe,  All  for  Love,  Don  Sebastian,  tragedies;  the 
Rival  Ladies  and  the  Spanish  Friar,  tragi-comedies ;  Sir  Martin  Mar- 
all,  An  Evening's  Love,  and  Marriage  a  la  Mode,  comedies. 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD.  199 

besides  having  a  considerable  share  in  two  which  are  ascribed  to 
Dryden,  —  "CEdipus,"  and  "The  Duke  of  Guise."  "The  Rival 
Queens  "  and  "  Theodosius  "  are  considered  his  best  pieces.  Addison 
says  of  him,  "  There  was  none  better  turned  for  tragedy  than  our 
author,  if,  instead  of  favoring  the  impetuosity  of  his  genius,  he  had 
restrained  it,  and  kept  it  within  proper  bounds."  Thomas  Shad  well, 
the  butt  of  Dryden's  satire  as  Og  in  "Absalom  and  Achitophel,"  and 
again  as  MacFlecknoe,  the  "true  blue  Protestant  poet,"  who  sup- 
planted Dryden  himself  as  poet-laureate  after  the  Revolution,  wrote 
sixteen  plays,  of  which  thirteen  are  comedies.  "  The  Virtuoso " 
and  the  "Lancashire  Witches"  long  held  their  ground  on  the  comic 
stage.  Elkanah  Settle,  worthless  (unless  he  is  much  belied)  both  as  a 
man  and  as  a  poet,  satirized  as  Doeg  in  "  Absalom  and  Achitophel," 
wrote  fifteen  plays,  chiefly  tragedies,  of  which  the  most  noted  was 
"  The  Empress  of  Morocco."  John  Crowne  wrote  a  tragedy  of  some 
mark,  "  Thyestes."  The  comedies  of  Mrs.  Aphra  Behn  had  a  great 
run  in  their  day,  but  are  now  forgotten. 

In  comedy,  however,  a  new  school  arose,  of  which 
the  tone  and  form  may  certainly  be  traced  to  the 
unrivalled  genius  of  Moliere.  The  "  comedy  of  man- 
ners," of  which  Congreve,  Etherege,  and  Wycherley 
were  in  our  present  period  the  chief  representatives, 
exhibited,  in  polished  and  witty  prose,  the  modes  of 
acting,  thinking,  and  talking  prevalent  in  the  fashion- 
able society  of  the  time.  That  society  was  a  grossly 
immoral  one  ;  and  the  plays  which  reflected  its  image 
were  no  less  so.  Congreve,  the  most  eminent  writer 
of  this  school,  produced  only  five  plays,  one  of  which, 
"  The  Mourning  Bride,"  is  a  tragedy.  His  comedies 
are,  "The  Old  Bachelor"  (1693),  "The  Double 
Dealer "  (1694),  "  Love  for  Love  "  (1695),  and  "  The 
Way  of  the  World"  (1700).  Congreve  was  the  inti- 
mate friend  of  Dryden,  who  appointed  him  his  literary 
executor,  and  in  some  well-known  lines  entreated  him 
to  be  watchful  over  his  memory :  — 

"  But  you,  whom  every  Muse  and  grace  adorn, 
Whom  I  foresee  to  better  fortune  born, 
Be  kind  to  my  remains ;  and,  oh !  defend, 
Against  your  judgment,  your  departed  friend  I 


200  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Let  not  the  insulting  foe  my  fame  pursue, 
But  shade  those  laurels  which  descend  to  you, 
And  take  for  tribute  what  these  lines  express : 
You  merit  more,  nor  could  my  love  do  less." 

Towards  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
immorality  of  the  stage  began  to  be  thought  intoler 
able.  In  this  respect  the  stage  had  remained  stationary 
since  the  Restoration,  while  the  morals  of  English 
society  had  been  gradually  becoming  purer.  This  gen- 
eral feeling  found  an  exponent  in  Jeremy  Collier,  a 
non-juring1  divine,  who  wrote  in  1698  his  "  Short  View 
of  the  Immortality  and  Profaneness  of  the  Stage." 
Both  Dryden  and  Congreve  were  vigorously  assailed 
in  this  work  on  account  of  their  dramatic  misdeeds. 
Dryden  magnanimously  pleaded  guilty  to  the  main 
charge,  in  the  preface  to  his  "  Fables,"  published  in 
1700,  although  he  maintained  that  Collier  had  in  many 
places  perverted  his  meaning  by  his  glosses,  and  was 
"  too  much  given  to  horse-play  in  his  raillery."  "  I  will 
not  say,"  he  continues,  "  that  the  zeal  of  God's  house  has 
eaten  him  up  ;  but  I  am  sure  it  has  devoured  some  part 
of  his  good  manners  and  civility."  After  a  time, 
Collier's  attack  produced  its  effect;  the  public  taste 
became  purer;  the  intellect  of  the  country  became 
ashamed  of  the  stage,  and  turned  to  cultivate  other 
branches  of  literature ;  and  from  that  time  the  English 
drama  tended  downwards  to  that  condition  of  feeble- 
ness and  inanity  which  reached  its  maximum  about  a 
hundred  years  later. 

Learning ;  Usher,  Selden,  Gale,  &c. 

The  state  of  learning  in  England  during  this  period 
was  not  so  high  as  it  has  been  generally  esteemed. 

1  That  is,  one  who  refused  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  King 
William. 


CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD.  201 

Selden  says  in  his  "  Table-Talk,"  "  The  Jesuits  and  the 
lawyers  of  France,  and  the  Low  Country  men,  have 
engrossed  all  learning:  the  rest  of  the  world  make 
nothing  but  homilies."  He  was  glancing  here  at  the 
eloquent  divines,  Andre wes,  Hall,  Taylor,  &c.  There 
was,  indeed,  abundance  of  illustrative,  but  little  produc- 
tive learning.  The  divines  above  mentioned,  in  their 
sermons,  ransack  for  illustrations  the  whole  series  of 
the  Greek  and  Latin  authors,  and  show  no  slight  ac- 
quaintance with  councils  and  Fathers ;  but  they  use  all 
this  learning  merely  to  serve  some  immediate  purpose ; 
they  do  not  digest  or  analyze  it  with  a  view  to  obtain- 
ing  from  it  permanent  literary  results.  Usher,  the 
Irishman,  is  the  chief  exception.  James  Usher,  one  of 
the  three  first  matriculated  students  of  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,1  upon  its  opening  in  1593,  rose  to  be  Protestant 
primate  of  Armagh ;  but  he  left  Ireland  in  1640,  and, 
excusing  himself  on  the  plea  of  the  social  confusion 
which  prevailed,  never  afterwards  returned  to  it.  His 
treatise,  "  De  Ecclesiarum  Britannicarum  Primordiis," 
and  his  celebrated  "Annales"  (a  digest  of  universal 
history  from  the  creation  to  the  destruction  of  Jerusa- 
lem by  Titus),  are  works  of  solid  learning  and  research, 
which  even  yet  are  not  superseded.  Selden  himself 
possessed  a  great  deal  of  abstruse  learning ;  probably 
no  Englishman  ever  dived  so  deep  into  rabbinical  liter- 
ature, or  was  so  completely  at  home  in  certain  branches 
of  antiquarian  research.  But  he  cannot  be  compared 
with  the  great  Dutchman  of  the  age,  Hugo  Grotius, 
whom  he  met  in  controversy,2  nor  with  the  Spanish 

1  Usher  actively  aided  in  the  formation  of  the  Trinity  College 
Library;  and  his  MSS.,  given  after  his  death  to  the  college  by  Charles 
II.,  form  a  valuable  portion  of  its  collections.     See  his  life  by  Aikin. 

2  Grotius  wrote  a  book  called  Mare  Liberum,  asserting  the  right 
of  free  fishery  in  the  narrow  seas  near  the  English  coast ;  to  which 
Selden  replied  by  his  Mare  Clausum,  denying  that  right. 


202  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Jesuit  Suarez.  He  was  narrower,  more  lawyer-like, 
and  less  philosophical,  than  either  of  those  two  great 
men.  The  names  of  Gale,  Gataker,  Potter,  and  Stan- 
ley are  the  most  respectable  that  we  can  produce  in 
the  department  of  scholarship  during  the  remainder  of 
the  period.  Potter's  "  Greek  Antiquities,"  first  pul> 
lished  in  1697,  was  a  text-book  in  all  British  schools  for 
nearly  a  century  and  a  half,  having  been  superseded 
only  within  these  few  years  by  the  fuller  and  more 
critical  treatises  for  which  German  thought  and  erudi- 
tion have  prepared  the  way.  Of  Bentley,  the  prince 
of  English  scholars,  we  shall  speak  in  the  next  chapter. 

Prose    Writings.  —  Fiction  :    "  Pilgrim's    Progress  ;  "    Oratory. 

In  the  department  of  prose  fiction,  this  period,  but 
for  one  remarkable  work,  is  absolutely  sterile.  In  the 
exciting  times  of  Charles  I.  and  the  Commonwealth, 
men  were  in  too  earnest  a  mood  to  spend  much  time  in 
the  contemplation  of  imaginary  scenes  and  characters. 
Nor,  during  the  twenty-eight  years  which  separated  the 
Revolution  from  the  Restoration,  had  the  agitation  of 
society  subsided  sufficiently  to  admit  of  the  formation 
of  a  novel-reading  public  ;  by  which  term  is  meant  that 
large  class  of  persons,  easy  in  their  circumstances,  but 
victims  to  ennui  from  the  tranquillity  and  uniformity 
of  their  daily  avocations,  who  seek  in  fiction  the  excite- 
ment which  the  stability  of  the  social  system  has  ban- 
ished from  their  actual  life.  It  must  be  remembered, 
also,  that  the  drama  was  the  surest  road  to  popularity 
for  an  inventive  genius  up  to  the  end  of  the  century. 
Soon  afterwards  the  stage  fell  into  discredit ;  and  the 
novel  immediately  appeared  to  fill  the  vacant  place. 

One  exception,  however,  to  this  rule  of  sterility,  is  to 
be  found  in  Bunyan's  celebrated  "  Pilgrim's  Progress." 
John  Bunyan,  a  native  of  Elstow,  near  Bedford,  was 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  203 

of  obscure  origin,  and  was  brought  up  to  the  trade  of 
a  tinker.  His  youth,  according  to  his  own  account, 
was  wild  and  vicious ,  but  having  been  impressed  by 
the  sermon  of  a  Baptist  preacher,  at  which  he  was  acci- 
dentally present,  he  was  led  to  enter  into  himself,  and 
gradually  reformed  his  life.  Forsaking  the  Church  of 
England,  he  joined  the  Baptists,  and  became  a  preacher 
among  them.  When,  after  the  Restoration,  severe  laws 
were  passed  against  nonconformity,  Bunyan,  refusing 
to  be  silenced,  was  thrown  into  Bedford  Jail,  where  he 
was  detained  twelve  years.  Here  it  was  that  he  wrote 
his  famous  allegory,  the  object  of  which  is  to  represent, 
under  the  figure  of  a  journey  taken  by  a  pilgrim,  the 
course  of  a  Christian's  life  in  his  passage  through  this 
world  to  the  world  to  come.  No  original  work  in  the 
English  language  has  had  a  greater  circulation  than  the 
"  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  nor  been  translated  into  a  greater 
number  of  foreign  languages.  The  work  was  first  pub- 
lished complete  in  1684 ;  Bunyan  died  in  1688.  It  is 
needless  to  describe  a  book  so  well  known ;  but  I  may 
remark  that  there  seems  a  great  falling -off  in  the 
account  of  the  pilgrimage  of  Christiana  and  her  sons, 
as  compared  with  that  of  the  pilgrimage  of  Christian. 
In  truth,  it  appears  from  the  poetical  introduction  to  the 
second  part,  that  the  good  man  was  excited  and  elated 
in  spirit  in  no  small  degree  by  the  extraordinary  recep- 
tion which  his  Christian  had  met  with  ;  he  was  con- 
scious that  greatness  had  been  thrust  upon  him :  and 
one  misses  accordingly,  in  the  second  part,  something 
of  the  delightful  freshness,  the  naturalness,  the  entire 
unconscious  devotion  of  heart  and  singleness  of  pur- 
pose, which  are  so  conspicuous  in  the  first  part.  But 
what  simple,  equable,  sinewy  English  the  "  inspired 
tinker "  writes !  what  fulness  of  the  Christian  doctrine 
is  in  him  !  what  clear  insight  into  many  forms  of  the 


204  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Christian  character!  what  thorough  understanding  of 
a  vast  variety  of  temptations,  fleshly  and  spiritual ! 

Under  the  head  of  Oratory  we  find  scarcely  any 
thing  deserving  of  mention.  Cromwell's  speeches, 
with  their  designed  ambiguity,  their  cloudy  pietism, 
their  involved  long-winded  sentences,  are  hardly  reada- 
ble, in  spite  of  Mr.  Cartyle's  editorial  industry.  The 
speeches  given  in  Clarendon's  History  are  often  very 
interesting ;  but  the  difficulty  of  knowing  how  much 
may  be  the  author's  own  composition  detracts,  of  course, 
from  their  value.  Pamphlets  issued  in  shoals  from  the 
press  during  all  this  period. 

History  and  Biography  :  Milton,  Ludlow,  Clarendon,  &c., 
Wood's  "  Athenae,"  Pepys,  Evelyn,  &c  ; 

In  our  last  notice  of  historical  writing,  it  appeared 
that,  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  century,  the  best  of 
our  historians  had  written  on  the  affairs  of  Turkey  and 
on  the  ancient  world.  But  as  the  century  wore  on, 
and  the  shadow  of  the  civil  war  began  to  darken  the 
sky,  English  contemporary  history  became  a  subject  of 
such  absorbing  and  pressing  interest,  that  our  writers 
had  no  thought  to  spare  for  that  of  foreign  nations 
and  distant  times.  Fuller,  Milton,  Ludlow,  May, 
Whitlocke,  Rushworth,  and  Clarendon,1  besides  many 
inferior  writers,  wrote  entirely,  so  far  as  they  were  his- 
torians at  all,  upon  English  affairs.  Thomas  Fuller, 
a  clergyman  of  great  wit  and  originality,  wrote  a 
"  Church  History  of  Britain  from  the  birth  of  Jesus 
Christ  until  the  year  1648 ;  "  this  work  was  published 
in  1656.  Milton's  "  History  of  England  "  is  but  a  frag- 
ment, extending  "  from  the  first  traditional  beginning  to 
the  Norman  Conquest."  Ludlow  was  one  of  Cromwell's 
generals,  and  signed  the  warrant  for  Charles  I.'s  execu- 

1  For  some  remarks  on  Clarendon's  History,  see  p.  480. 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  205 

tion ;  his  "  Memoirs,"  written  during  his  exile  in  Swit- 
zerland, relating,  for  the  most  part,  to  events  in  which 
he  had  himself  been  an  actor,  were  first  published 
after  his  death  in  1698.  John  May,  a  lawyer,  described 
the  civil  strife,  both  in  parliament  and  in  the  field, 
from  the  parliamentary  point  of  view ;  his  work,  pub- 
lished about  1650,  is  described  by  Hallam  as  a  kind  of 
contrast  to  that  of  Clarendon.  Bulstrode  Whitlocke, 
one  of  the  commissioners  of  the  Great  Seal  under 
Cromwell,  composed  some  dull  but  in  many  respects 
important  memoirs,  which  were  first  published  in  1682. 
Rushworth's  "  Historical  Collections,"  a  perfect  mine 
of  information,  appeared  in  1659.  He  was  a  clerk  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  for  many  years  was  in  the 
habit  of  taking  notes  of  "  speeches  and  passages  at  con- 
ferences in  parliament,  and  from  the  king's  own  mouth 
what  he  spoke  to  both  houses,  and  was  upon  the  stage 
continually  an  eye  and  an  ear  witness  of  the  greatest 
transactions."1  His  Collections  range  over  the  period 
from  1618  to  1644. 

Of  works  subsidiary  to  history,  e.g.,  biographies,  per- 
sonal memoirs,  diaries,  &c.,  we  meet  with  a  considera- 
ble number.  The  most  important  among  them  is  the 
well-known  "  Athense  Oxonienses  "  of  Anthony  a  Wood, 
a  "  History  of  all  the  Writers  and  Bishops  educated 
at  Oxford  from  1500  to  1695."  Fuller's  well-known 
biographical  work  on  the  "  Worthies  of  England,"  con- 
taining sketches  of  about  eighteen  hundred  individuals, 

—  among  others,  of  Chaucer,  Spenser,  and  Shakspeare, 

—  arranged   under   the    several    counties  of  England 
and  Wales,  appeared  in  1662,  the  year  after  his  death. 
Izaak  Walton,  better  known  for  his  "  Treatise  on  An- 
gling," wrote  lives  of  several  eminent  Anglican  divines, 
including  Hooker,  Donne,  and   Sanderson.      Baxter's 

1  Wood's  Athenae. 
18 


206  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

"  Reliquiae  Baxterianse,"  a  curious  autobiography,  con- 
fused, however,  in  arrangement  and  badly  edited,  first 
appeared  in  1696.  All  the  material  portions  of  it 
are  given  in  Orme's  Life  of  Baxter.  The  curious 
"  Diary  "  of  Samuel  Pepys,  Secretary  to  the  Admiralty, 
extending  over  the  years  1660-1669,  was  first  given  to 
the  world  in  1825,  having  lain  veiled  in  its  original 
cipher,  till  raked  out  of  the  MS.  repository  of  the 
Pepysian  Library,  and  deciphered  under  the  superin- 
tendence of  Lord  Braybrooke.  Andrew  Marvell  in 
his  "  Seasonable  Argument,"  printed  in  1677,  thus  dis' 
poses  of  Pepys,  who  was  then  member  for  the  borough 
of  Castle  Rising  :  "  Castle  Rising :  Samuel  Pepys,  once 
a  taylor,  then  serving-man  to  the  Lord  Sandwitch,  now 
secretary  to  the  Admiralty,  got  by  passes  and  other 
illegal  wayes  40,000£."  It  was  not  Samuel,  however, 
but  his  father,  who  was  the  tailor.  John  Evelyn,  a 
country  gentleman  skilled  in  the  mysteries  of  planting 
and  landscape-gardening,  is  the  author  of  a  "  Diary," 
first  published  in  1818,  which,  among  other  matters, 
contains  an  interesting  account  of  the  great  fire  of 
London,  of  which  he  was  an  eye-witness. 

We  have  few  or  no  narratives  of  adventure,  by  sea  or 
land,  to  record  in  connection  with  this  period.  A  time 
of  civil  war  concentrates  the  thoughts  and  the  activ 
ity  of  men  upon  their  own  country,  just  as  in  the  sys- 
tole of  the  heart  the  blood  all  flows  together  to  the  vital 
centre.  In  tranquil  times,  the  counter  movement — - 
the  diastole  —  sets  in ;  and  the  energies  of  many  of  the 
most  stirring  and  gifted  persons  in  the  nation  are  turned 
outwards,  and  employed  over  wide  and  remote  areas  in 
the  search  of  excitement,  or  the  investigation  of  nature. 


CIVIL   WAE   PERIOD.  207 

Theology :  Hall,  Jeremy  Taylor,  Bull,  Baxter,  &c. 

This  is  the  Augustan  period  of  Anglican  divinity. 
If  we  examine  the  literature  of  the  controversy  that 
raged,  in  this  as  in  the  previous  period,  between  the 
Church  of  England  and  the  Puritans,  we  shall  find 
that,  if  we  put  aside  the  writings  of  Milton,  the  Epis- 
copalian writers  immeasurably  excelled  their  opponents, 
both  in  talent  and  learning.  Joseph  Hall,  Bishop  of 
Norwich,  comes  next  for  mention  in  order  of  time  after 
Bishop  Andrewes.  By  his  reply  to  the  pamphlet  pro- 
duced by  five  Puritan  ministers,  who  wrote  under  the 
fictitious  name  of  "  Smectymnuus,"  l  he  drew  upon  him- 
self the  fierce  invectives  of  Milton.  His  "  Medita- 
tions "  and  "  Characters  "  will  be  noticed  in  the  next 
section.  Ejected  by  the  Puritans  from  the  see  of  Nor- 
wich in  1643,  he  retired  to  a  small  estate  at  Higham, 
where  he  died  at  a  very  advanced  age  in  1656. 

Jeremy  Taylor,  the  most  eloquent  of  English  writers, 
was  born  at  Cambridge  in  1613.  Like  nearly  all  the 
Anglican  divines  of  this  period,  he  inclined  to  the 
tenets  of  Arminius,  a  Dutch  theologian,  who  died  in 
1608,  and  whose  opinions  were  vehemently  anathema- 
tized after  his  death  by  the  Calvinistic  synod  of  Dort. 
If  asked  what  precisely  the  Arminians  held,  one  might 
answer,  as  Morley  is  said  to  have  done  2  when  a  coun- 
try squire  put  him  the  question,  "  All  the  best  bishop- 
rics and  deaneries  in  England."  It  will  be  sufficient, 
however,  to  say  that  Arminianism  was  a  species  of 
Pelagianism,  and  arose  by  way  of  re-action  against  the 
predestinarian  extravagances  of  the  Calvinists.  Cole- 
ridge gives  the  following  graphic  account  of  the  English 
Arminians :  "  Towards  the  close  'of  the  reign  of  our 
first  James,  and  during  the  period  from  the  accession 
of  Charles  I.  to  the  restoration  of  his  profligate  son, 
1  See  p.  180,  n.  2  Clarendon's  Autobiography. 


208  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

there  arose  a  party  of  divines,  Arminians  (and  many 
of  them  Latitudinarians)  in  their  creed,  but  devotees 
of  the  throne  and  the  altar,  soaring  High  Churchmen 
and  ultra  royalists.  Much  as  I  dislike  their  scheme 
of  doctrine,  and  detest  their  principles  of  government, 
both  in  Church  and  State,  I  cannot  but  allow  that  they 
formed  a  galaxy  of  learning  and  talent,  and  that  among 
them  the  Church  of  England  finds  her  stars  of  the 
first  magnitude.  Instead  of  regarding  the  Reformation 
established  under  Edward  VI.  as  imperfect,  they 
accused  the  Reformers,  some  of  them  openly,  but  all 
in  their  private  opinions,  of  having  gone  too  far  ;  and 
while  they  were  willing  to  keep  down  (and,  if  they 
could  not  reduce  him  to  a  primacy  of  honor,  to  keep 
out)  the  Pope,  .  .  .  they  were  zealous  to  restore  the 
hierarchy,  and  to  substitute  the  authority  of  the  fathers, 
canonists,  and  councils  of  the  first  six  or  seven  cen- 
turies, and  [some  of  the]  later  doctors  and  schoolmen, 
for  the  names  of  Luther,  Melancthon,  Bucer,  Calvin, 
and  the  systematic  theologians  who  rejected  all  testi- 
mony but  that  of  their  Bible." 1 

Taylor's  earlier  works,  written  in  the  lifetime  of 
Charles  I.,  while  he  was  (to  use  Coleridge's  phrase) 
"  ambling  on  the  high  road  of  preferment,"  were  all  of 
the  High  Church  school ;  that  is,  they  were  directed  to 
the  defence  of  the  sacred  character  of  Episcopacy,  and 
to  the  vindication  of  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the 
Church  of  England  against  the  Puritans.  But  during 
the  Protectorate  he  published  a  work  of  a  very  differ- 
ent complexion.  "  Tempora  mutantur,  et  nos  mutamur 
in  illis."  This  was  his  famous  "  Liberty  of  Prophesy- 
ing," a  treatise  on  "toleration,  in  which  he  argued  that 
the  state  should  tolerate  all  sects  which  agreed  to  re- 
ceive the  Apostles'  Creed  as  their  common  standard  of 

1  Literary  Remains,  vol.  iii.  p.  385. 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  209 

faith.  This  was  nothing  more  than  a  political  applica- 
tion of  the  view  propounded  by  Chillingworth  in  his 
"  Religion  of  Protestants  a  Safe  Way  to  Salvation  " 
(published  in  1637),  to  the  effect  that  the  profession  of 
Christianity  ought  to  involve  nothing  more  than  sub- 
scription to  this  creed.  Milton's  "  Areopagitica,  or 
Speech  for  the  Liberty  of  Unlicensed  Printing,"  pub- 
lished in  1644,  should  be  compared  with  the  "  Liberty 
of  Prophesying ; "  the  former  being  a  plea  for  a  free 
press,  the  latter  a  plea  for  freedom  of  public  worship. 
Coleridge  remarks,  "  The  Liberty  of  Prophesying"  is 
an  admirable  work,  in  many  respects,  and  calculated  to 
produce  a  much  greater  effect  on  the  many  than  Mil- 
ton's treatise  on  the  same  subject.  On  the  other  hand, 
Milton  is  throughout  unmixed  truth  ;  and  the  man  who 
in  reading  the  two  does  not  feel  the  contrast  between 
the  single-mindedness  of  the  one,  and  the  strabismus  in 
the  other,  is  —  in  the  road  of  preferment."  1 

After  the  Restoration,  Taylor  was  appointed  Protes- 
tant Bishop  of  Down.  Episcopacy  was  now  again 
dominant ;  and  we  find  Taylor  "  basely  disclaiming  and 
disavowing  the  principle  of  toleration,"  and  excusing 
himself  as  best  he  could  for  his  late  liberalism.  Of 
his  remaining  works,  the  most  remarkable  are  the 
"  Holy  Living  "  and  the  "  Holy  Dying,"  2  devotional 
treatises,  of  which  it  is  impossible  not  to  admire  the 
depth  of  thought,  the  fervor,  and  the  eloquence.  The 
"  Ductor  Dubitantium  "  is  a  manual  of  casuistry,  and 
the  "  Golden  Grove  "  a  collection  of  prayers  and  lita- 
nies, with  an  appendix  containing  hymns  for  festivals. 
Taylor  died  in  1667. 

The  discouraged  Puritans  felt  little  inclination  to 
renew  those  controversies  on  church  government  which 
events  had  so  decisively  settled  one  way  ;  and,  besides, 

1  Literary  Remains,  vol.  iii.  p.  20.  2  See  p.  500. 

18 


210  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

the  great  power  and  commanding  influence  which  the 
Roman  Church  progressively  acquired  during  the  reign 
of  Louis  XIV.  alarmed  all  Protestant  bodies  on  this 
side  into  an  unacknowledged  but  valid  alliance  against 
the  common  antagonist.  If  Baxter  thundered  from  the 
Presbyterian  camp,  the  Anglican  bishops  and  divines 
were  not  less  vigilant,  copious,  and  argumentative. 
Isaac  Barrow  wrote  his  learned  work  on  "The  Suprem- 
acy ;  "  and  George  Bull,  not  yet  a  bishop,  addressed  to 
the  Countess  of  Newburgh  his  "  Vindication  of  the 
Church  of  England  from  the  Errors  of  the  Church  of 
Rome ; "  and  Burnet,  with  an  express  controversial 
intention,  published  in  1679  and  1681  his  "  History  of 
the  Reformation,"  for  which  he  received  the  thanks  of 
both  houses  of  Parliament.  However,  the  most  re- 
markable theological  works  of  the  last  quarter  of  the 
century  were  rather  directed  against  infidelity,  or  at 
least  against  opinions  subsisting  on  the  outermost  verge 
of  Christianity,  than  either  against  Puritanism  or 
Popery.  And  these  works,  as  we  shall  see,  form  a  link 
of  transition  between  the  theology  of  this  age  and  that 
of  the  next,  that  seculum  rationalisticum,  when  theology 
will  have  to  defend,  not  the  mere  outworks  and  dis- 
pensable additions,  but  the  very  body  of  the  fortress. 
Bishop  Bull's  "Defensio  Fidei  Nicenae"  (1685)  is  a 
systematic  endeavor  to  prove,  against  the  Arian  writers 
who  were  now  beginning  to  make  a  stir  both  abroad 
and  in  England,  that  the  Christian  writers  who  lived 
before  the  Council  of  Nice  (A.D.  325),  in  spite  of 
occasional  looseness  and  vagueness  of  language,  held 
really  that  very  doctrine  respecting  the  Trinity  which 
is  affirmed  in  the  Nicene  Creed.  The  "  Judicium 
Ecclesise  Catholicse  "  (1694)  is  a  work  of  similar  scope  : 
it  is  to  elucidate  and  set  forth  the  judgment  of  the 
Church  in  every  age  respecting  Christ's  divinity. 


CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD.  211 

Robert  Nelson,  a  friend  of  Bull's,  sent  this  work  in 
1699  to  the  great  Bossuet,  Bishop  of  Meanx ;  and,  in  a 
pleasant  cordial  letter  of  thanks,  Bossuet,  after  stating 
that  he  desired  to  express  not  his  own  sense  merely, 
but  that  of  the  French  bishops  in  general,  of  the  obli- 
gations under  which  "  le  Docteur  Bullus  "  had  laid  the 
Christian  world,  expressed  his  surprise  that  so  learned 
and  penetrating  a  mind  could  fail  to  recognize  the 
claims  of  the  existing  Catholic  Church  to  his  allegi- 
ance. Bull  replied  to  these  expressions  in  a  short 
pamphlet  called  "  Corruptions  of  the  Church  of  Rome ;  " 
but  Bossuet  was  dead  before  it  was  finished.1  Bull 
also  wrote  "  Animadversions "  on  the  works  of  the 
Unitarian  Gilbert  Clarke  ;  and  "  Harmonia  Apostolica  " 
(1669),  an  attempt  to  reconcile  the  passages  respecting 
justification  found  in  the  writings  of  St.  Paul  and  St. 
James. 

Touched,  perhaps,  by  the  ungenerous  attitude  which 
the  Church,  restored  by  Presbyterian  aid,  held  towards 
gagged  and  persecuted  Nonconformity,  after  the  passing 
of  the  repressive  acts  consequent  upon  the  Restoration, 
the  purer  and  nobler  minds  yearned  for  some  scheme 
of  comprehension,  under  which,  concessions  being 
made  on  both  sides,  the  greater  part  of  the  Noncon- 
formists might  be  brought  within  the  pale  of  the 
Church.  Archbishop  Leighton,  Henry  More,  Ralph 
Cudworth,  and  Bishop  Wilkins  were  the  principal  men 
of  this  school :  they  were  called  the  Latitudinarian 
divines.  Leighton,  son  of  the  unhappy  Presbyterian 
who  was  cruelly  mutilated  by  sentence  of  the  Star 
Chamber  in  1629,  was  one  of  the  most  saintly  men  that 
ever  gave  living  and  practical  proof  of  the  divine  power 
of  Christianity.  He  was  on  terms  of  the  most  intimate 
friendship  with  Bishop  Burnet,  who  declares,  in  the 

1  See  the  Life  of  Bishop  Bull,  by  Nelson. 


212  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

"  History  of  his  Own  Times,"  that  he  "  reckoned  his 
early  knowledge  of  him,  and  long  and  intimate  conver- 
sation with  him,  that  continued  to  his  death  for  twenty- 
three  years,  amongst  the  greatest  blessings  of  his  life  ; 
for  which  he  knew  he  must  give  account  to  God  in  the 
great  day,  in  a  most  particular  manner."  Leighton's 
chief  work  is  the  "  Commentary  on  the  First  Epistle 
of  St.  Peter,"  which  drew  forth  the  ardent  admiration 
of  Coleridge.  Of  Cudworth  and  More  we  shall  have 
to  speak  in  another  place. 

Pearson  is  the  author  of  a  well-known  exposition  of 
the  Apostles'  Creed  (1659).  He  was  a  man  of  vast 
learning,  fitter,  according  to  Burnet,  to  be  a  divine 
than  a  bishop.  His  vindication  of  the  authenticity 
of  the  Epistles  of  Ignatius  is  a  very  masterly  produc- 
tion. Lightfoot's  uHora  Hebraicse "  and  "  Harmony 
of  the  Four  Gospels"  are  works  of  a  different  kind. 
In  these,  the  writer's  profound  acquaintance  with  rab- 
binical literature  enables  him  to  throw  a  flood  of  light 
on  the  various  Jewish  usages  and  rites  current  in  Pal- 
estine at  the  time  of  the  Christian  era,  and  referred  to 
in  the  New  Testament,  as  well  as  upon  obscure  points 
in  the  topography. 

Two  thousand  Presbyterian  ministers  were  ejected 
from  their  parishes  in  1662,  under  the  Act  of  Uni- 
formity. Among  them  the  most  eminent  was  Richard 
Baxter,  a  voluminous  but  not  very  instructive  writer, 
except  where  he  confines  himself  to  themes  purely 
devotional.  He  is  the  author  of  a  well-known  manual 
of  religious  meditation,  "  The  Saint's  Everlasting 
Rest "  (1649).  In  the  long  series  of  his  writings 
against  Popery  occur  such  titles  as  "  A  Winding-Sheet 
for  Popery"  (1657),  "The  Grotian  Religion  Discov- 
ered "  (in  which  he  censures  Grotius'  leanings  towards 
Rome),  "  The  Certainty  of  Christianity  without  Pope- 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD.  213 

ry  "  (1672),  "  Against  Revolt  to  a  Foreign  Jurisdic- 
tion "  (1691),  &c.  Tillotson —  no  mean  authority  — 
says  of  Baxter,  that  "  he  loved  to  abound  in  his  own 
sense,  could  by  no  means  be  brought  off  his  own  appre- 
hensions and  thoughts,  but  would  have  them  to  be  the 
rule  and  standard  for  all  other  men." 

Philosophy:    Hobbes,  Locke. 

Though  the  philosophical  teaching  of  the  English 
universities  remained  in  statu  quo  during  this  period, 
speculation  was  common  among  cultivated  minds,  and 
developed  in  certain  branches  of  inquiry  marked  and 
important  results.  In  metaphysics  occur  the  name  of 
Thomas  Hobbes,  and  the  still  more  famous  name  of 
John  Locke.  Political  reasoning  was  earnestly  fol- 
lowed by  Milton,  Hobbes,  Sidney,  Harrington,  Filmer, 
and  Locke.  Essay-writing  was  attempted  by  Feltham, 
and  more  successfully  by  Bishop  Hall  and  Sir  Thomas 
Browne.  Lastly,  the  "new  philosophy,"  as  it  was 
called  in  that  age,  that  is,  the  philosophy  of  experi- 
ment, received  a  strong  impulse  through  the  incorpora- 
tion, in  1662,  of  the  Royal  Society. 

Hobbes,  the  "  philosopher  of  Malmesbury,"  was  bora 
in  the  year  of  the  Spanish  Armada,  and  is  said  to  have 
owed  the  nervous  timidity  of  his  constitution  to  the 
terror  with  which  his  mother  regarded  the  approach 
of  the  invading  host.  After  a  residence  of  five  years 
at  Oxford,  he  travelled  on  the  Continent,  and  made  the 
acquaintance  of  several  eminent  men.  Returning  to 
England,  he  devoted  himself  to  the  careful  study  of  the 
classical  historians  and  poets.  He  early  conceived  a 
dislike  to  the  democratical  or  movement  party  of  that 
day,  and  in  1628  published  a  translation  of  Thucy- 
dides,  "  that  the  follies  of  the  Athenian  democrats 
might  be  made  known  to  his  fellow-citizens."  For  the 


214  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

greater  portion  of  his  long  life,  after  attaining  to  man- 
hood, he  resided  as  a  tutor  or  as  a  friend  in  the  family 
of  the  Earls  of  Devonshire.  The  stormy  opening  of 
the  Long  Parliament,  in  1640,  led  him  to  apprehend 
civil  war,  from  which  his  timid  nature  instinctively 
shrank :  he  accordingly  went  over  to  France,  and  took 
up  his  abode  at  Paris.  Among  his  philosophical 
acquaintances  there  were  Gassendi  and  Father  Mer- 
senne.  The  former  was  as  great  a  sceptic  as  himself ; 
the  latter,  he  says,1  once,  when  he  was  dangerously  ill, 
tried  to  make  him  a  Roman  Catholic,  but  without  the 
least  success.  His  political  treatise,  "  De  Give,"  was 
published  at  Paris  in  1646.  "  The  Leviathan,"  con- 
taining his  entire  philosophical  system,  appeared  in 
1651 ;  the  "  De  Corpore,"  a  physiological  work,  in 
1655  ;  and  the  u  De  Homine  "  in  1658.  At  the  age  of 
eighty  he  wrote  his  "  Behemoth,"  a  history  of  the  civil 
war ;  and,  about  the  same  time,  a  Latin  poem  on  the 
rise  and  growth  of  the  Papal  power.  In  his  eighty- 
seventh  year  he  published  a  metrical  version  of  the 
"  Odyssey,"  and  in  the  following  year  one  of  the 
"  Iliad ; "  both,  however,  are  worthless.  He  died 
in  1679,  being  then  ninety-one  years  old. 

Cudworth,  who  has  been  already  mentioned  as  one 
of  the  Latitudinarian  divines,  takes  rank  among  the 
philosophers  on  account  of  his  "  Intellectual  System  of 
the  Universe  "  (1678),  a  work  designed  to  be  in  three 
parts,  and  to  refute  three  several  doctrines  which  he 
calls  "  Fatalisms."  The  first  is  that  of  an  atheistic  fate 
or  necessity,  which,  with  Lucretius,  accounts  for  the 
material  world  by  the  fortuitous  meeting  and  inter- 
action of  atoms.  The  second  is  that  of  a  divine  fate 
immoral,  which  admits  a  God,  but  denies  him  to  be 

1  See  his  curious  Latin  autobiography,  prefixed  to  the  edition  of 
his  works,  by  Sir  W.  Molesworth. 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  215 

good  or  just.  The  third  is  that  of  a  divine  fate  moral, 
which  admits  God  to  be  good  and  just,  and  allows  the 
reality  of  moral  distinctions,  but  nevertheless  considers 
all  human  actions  as  inevitably  concatenated  and 
necessary.  But,  of  these  three  parts,  Cudworth  only 
executed  the  first,  the  argument  against  atheism  ; 
nevertheless,  as  he  considered  it  right  always  to  state 
the  arguments  of  his  adversaries  fully  and  in  their 
own  words,  his  work  is  one  of  unwieldy  bulk. 

Few  names  occur  in  the  history  of  our  literature 
which  are  more  noteworthy  than  that  of  John  Locke, 
because  there  are  few  writers  to  whose  influence 
important  changes  or  advances  in  general  opinion, 
upon  divers  important  questions,  can  be  so  certainly 
and  directly  attributed.  His  political  doctrines  have 
been  persistently  carried  into  practice  by  his  own 
country  ever  since  his  death,  and  recently  by  other 
countries  also ;  and  the  results  have  —  to  outward 
appearance,  at  least  —  been  singularly  encouraging. 
By  his  famous  u  Essay  on  the  Human  Understanding," 
he  effectually  checked  the  tendency  to  waste  the  efforts 
of  the  mind  in  sterile  metaphysical  discussions,  and 
opened  out  a  track  of  inquiry  which  the  human  mind 
has  earnestly  prosecuted  ever  since,  with  ever-increas- 
ing confidence  in  the  soundness  of  the  method,  consid- 
ered as  a  testing  process,  applicable  to  matters  of  fact. 
Lastly,  his  "  Treatise  on  Education,"  from  which  Rous- 
seau is  said  to  have  largely  borrowed  in  his  "  Emile," 
contains  the  first  suggestion  of  a  large  number  of  those 
improvements,  both  in  the  theory  and  practice  of  edu- 
cation, which  the  present  age  has  seen  effected. 

Locke  resided,  for  many  years  after  leaving  Oxford, 
in  the  house  of  his  patron  and  friend,  Lord  Shaftesbury, 
the  Achitophel  of  Dryden's  satire,  whose  character 
the  poet  portrayed  in  those  famous  lines  :  — 


216  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATUEE. 

"  Restless,  unfixed  in  principles  and  place, 
In  power  unpleased,  impatient  of  disgrace ; 
A  fiery  soul,  which,  working  out  its  way, 
Fretted  the  pygmy  body  to  decay, 
And  o'er-informed  the  tenement  of  clay.1 

Sharing  the  Whig  opinions  of  his  patron,  Locke  came 
in  also  for  his  full  share  of  the  enmity  of  the  court, 
which  even  demanded,  in  1685,  his  extradition  from  the 
States-General  of  Holland,  to  which  country  he  had 
followed  Shaftesbury  after  his  disgrace  in  1682.  His 
friends,  however,  concealed  him ;  and  Locke  had  the  sat- 
isfaction of  returning  to  England  in  the  fleet  of  the 
conquering  William  of  Orange.  Strange,  that  of  the 
two  greatest  literary  Englishmen  of  that  day,  —  John 
Locke  and  John  Dryden,  —  the  resemblance  of  whose 
portraits  must  have  struck  many  an  observer,  the  one 
should  date  his  personal  advancement,  and  the  triumph 
of  the  cause  to  which  he  adhered,  from  the  same  event 
which  brought  dismissal,  ruin,  and  humiliation  to  the 
other ! 

Locke's  own  account  of  the  origin  of  the  "  Essay  "  is 
interesting.  In  the  prefatory  Epistle  to  the  Reader,  he 
says,  "  Were  it  fit  to  trouble  thee  with  the  history  of 
this  Essay,  I  should  tell  thee  that  five  or  six  friends 
meeting  at  my  chamber,  and  discoursing  on  a  subject 
very  remote  from  this,  found  themselves  quickly  at  a 
stand,  by  the  difficulties  that  rose  on  every  side.  After 
we  had  a  while  puzzled  ourselves,  without  coming  any 
nearer  a  resolution  of  those  doubts  which  perplexed  us, 
it  came  into  my  thoughts  that  we  took  a  wrong  course ; 
and  that,  before  we  set  ourselves  upon  inquiries  of  that 
nature,  it  was  necessary  to  examine  our  own  abilities, 
and  see  what  objects  our  understandings  were,  or  were 
not,  fitted  to  deal  with.  This  I  proposed  to  the  com- 

1  Absalom  and  Achitophel,  Part  I. 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  217 

party,  who  all  readily  assented ;  and  thereupon  it  was 
agreed  that  this  should  be  our  first  inquiry.  Some 
hasty  and  undigested  thoughts  on  a  subject  I  had  never 
before  considered,  which  I  set  down  against  our  next 
meeting,  gave  the  first  entrance  into  this  discourse  ; 
which,  having  been  thus  begun  by  chance,  was  con- 
tinued by  entreaty,  written  by  incoherent  parcels,  and, 
after  long  intervals  of  neglect,  resumed  again,  as  my 
humor  or  occasions  permitted ;  and  at  last,  in  a  retire- 
ment where  an  attendance  on  my  health  gave  me  leis- 
ure, it  was  brought  into  that  order  thou  now  seest  it." 

The  order  in  which  Locke's  principal  works  appeared 
was  as  follows :  his  first  "  Letter  on  Toleration "  was 
published  in  Holland  in  1688 ;  the  "  Essay  on  the 
Human  Understanding "  appeared  in  1689 ;  the  two 
"Treatises  on  Government,"1  in  1690;  the  "Thoughts 
upon  Education"  in  1693;  and  the  treatise  on  the 
"  Reasonableness  of  Christianity  "  in  1695.  Locke  died 
unmarried  at  the  house  of  his  friend  Sir  Francis  Mas- 
ham,  in  Essex,  in  the  year  1704. 

Of  the  many  remarkable  works  on  political  science, 
to  which  this  agitated  period  gave  birth,  we  shall  have 
occasion  to  speak  more  particularly  in  the  second  part 
of  this  work.  Speaking  generally,  these  works  repre- 
sent the  opinions  of  five  parties,  cavalier  Tories  and 
philosophical  Tories,  Puritan  Whigs  and  Constitu- 
tional Whigs,  and  philosophical  Republicans.  Sir 
Robert  Filmer,  author  of  the  "  Patriarcha,"  2  in  which 
the  doctrine  of  "the  right  divine  of  kings  to  govern 
wrong  "  was  pushed  to  its  extreme,  was  the  chief  writer 
of  the  first  party;  Hobbes  represented  the  second, 
Milton  and  Algernon  Sidney  the  third,  Locke  the 
fourth,  and  Harrington  the  fifth.  Milton's  chief  po- 
litical treatises  are,  "  The  Tenure  of  Kings  and  M  agis- 

i  See  p.  510.  2  Se«  p.  508. 

19 


218  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

trates  "  (1649),  and  "  The  Ready  and  Easy  Way  to 
establish  a  Free  Commonwealth"  (1660).  Harrington's 
•'  Oceana,"  the  name  by  which  he  designates  England, 
as  his  imagination  painted  her  after  being  regenerated 
by  republicanism,  was  published  in  1656.  The  Protec- 
tor's government  at  first  refused  to  allow  it  to  appear : 
but  Cromwell,  at  the  request  of  his  favorite  daughter 
Elizabeth,  gave  his  consent  to  the  publication,  coupled, 
however,  with  the  dry  remark,  that  "  what  he  had  won 
by  the  sword  he  should  not  suffer  himself  to  be  scrib- 
bled out  of." 

Essay- Writing:  Hall,  Feltham,  Browne. 

The  examples  of  Bacon  and  Burton  were  followed  by 
several  gifted  men  in  this  period,  who  preferred  jotting 
down  detached  thoughts  on  a  variety  of  subjects,  mak- 
ing, as  it  were,  "  Guesses  at  Truth "  in  a  variety  of 
directions,  to  the  labor  of  concentrating  their  faculties 
upon  a  single  intellectual  enterprise.  Thus  Bishop  Hall 
wrote,  in  the  early  part  of  the  century,  "  Three  Centu- 
ries of  Meditations  and  Vows,"  each  century  containing 
a  hundred  short  essays  or  papers.  Feltham's  "Re- 
solves "  ("  resolve,"  in  the  sense  of  "  solution  of  a 
problem  "),  published  in  1637,  is  a  work  of  the  same 
kind. 

From  the  fierce  semi-political  Christianity  of  the  Pu- 
ritans, and  the  official  historical  Christianity  of  the 
Churchmen,  it  is  refreshing  to  turn  to  the  philosophical 
and  genial  system  of  faith  confessed  in  the  "  Religio 
Medici "  of  the  good  Sir  Thomas  Browne.  Browne 
was  a  mystic  and  an  idealist ;  he  loved  to  plunge  into 
the  abysses  of  some  vast  thought,  such  as  the  Divine 
wisdom  or  the  Divine  eternity,  and  pursue  its  mazes 
until  he  was  forced  to  cry  an  "  O  altitudo  !  "  and  instead 
of  being  tempted  to  materialism  by  the  necessary  inves- 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD.  219 

tigations  of  his  profession, — investigations  which  he 
evidently  pursued  with  keen  zest,  and  in  perfect  steadi- 
ness of  judgment, — he  regarded  all  the  secondary  laws 
which  he  discovered,  or  beheld  in  operation,  as  illustra- 
tions of  the  regular  government  of  the  Power  whose 
personality,  and  disengaged  freedom,  and  supremacy 
over  the  laws  through  which  He  ordinarily  works,  were 
to  him  antecedent  truths  of  conscience  and  reason. 
"  The  Religio  Medici,"  which  had  already  appeared  in 
a  surreptitious  and  unauthorized  form,  was  first  pub- 
lished by  its  author  in  1643.  In  the  first  few  pages,  his 
tenderness  and  charity  towards  the  Roman  Church,  and 
his  genial  and  innate  repugnance  to  the  spirit  of  Puri- 
tanic bitterness,  are  made  apparent.  "  We  have  re- 
formed from  them,"  he  says,  "not  against  them."  His 
own  temper,  he  admits,  inclines  him  to  the  use  of  form 
and  ceremonial  in  devotion.  "  I  am,  I  confess,  natu- 
rally inclined  to  that  which  misguided  zeal  terms  super- 
stition. ...  I  could  never  hear  the  Ave  Mary  bell 
without  an  elevation."  On  the  whole,  he  finds  that  no 
church  "  squares  unto  his  conscience  "  so  well  in  every 
respect  as  the  Church  of  England,  whose  Articles  he 
thoroughly  embraces,  while  following  his  own  reason 
where  she  and  the  Scripture  are  silent.  Though  at 
present  free,  as  he  alleges,  from  the  taint  of  any  hereti- 
cal opinion,  he  entertained  in  his  youth  various  singular 
tenets,  among  which  were,  the  death  of  the  soul  to- 
gether with  the  body,  until  the  resurrection  of  both  at 
the  Day  of  Judgment ;  the  ultimate  universal  restoration 
of  all  men,  as  held  by  Origen ;  and  the  propriety  of 
prayers  for  the  dead.  But  he  declares  that  there  was 
never  a  time  when  he  found  it  difficult  to  believe  a 
doctrine  merely  because  it  transcended  and  confounded 
his  reason.  "  Methinks  there  be  not  impossibilities 
enough  in  religion  for  an  active  faith."  He  can  answer 


220  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

all  objections  with  the  maxim  of  Tertullian,  Cerium  est 
quia  impossible  est,  and  is  glad  that  he  did  not  live  in 
the  age  of  miracles,  when  faith  would  have  been  thrust 
upon  him  almost  without  any  merit  of  his  own.  He 
collects  (§§  15-19)  his  divinity  from  two  books,  —  the 
Bible  and  Nature.  Yet  he  is  not  disposed  so  to  deem 
or  speak  of  Nature  as  to  veil  behind  her  the  immanence 
and  necessary  action  of  God  in  all  her  phenomena. 
"  Nature  is  the  art  of  God."  Again,  he  will  not,  with 
the  vulgar,  ascribe  any  real  power  to  chance  or  fortune 
("it  is  we  that  are  blind,  not  fortune"),  which  is  but 
another  name  for  the  settled  and  predetermined  evolu- 
tion of  visible  effects  from  causes  the  knowledge  of 
which  is  inaccessible  to  us.  He  could  himself  (§21) 
produce  a  long  list  of  difficulties  and  objections  in  the 
way  of  faith,  many  of  which  were  never  before  started. 
But  if  these  objections  breed,  at  any  time,  doubts  in  his 
mind,  he  combats  such  misgivings,  "  not  in  a  martial 
posture,  but  on  his  knees." 

From  this  description  of  the  contents  of  the  first  few 
sections,  the  reader  may  form  some  notion  of  the  pecu- 
liar and  most  original  vein  of  thought  which  runs 
through  the  book.  As  the  first  part  treats  of  faith,  so 
the  second  gives  the  author's  meditations  on  the  virtue 
of  charity.  A  delightful  ironical  humor  breaks  out 
occasionally,  as  in  the  advice  which  he  gives  to  those 
who  desire  to  be  strengthened  in  their  own  opinions. 
"  When  we  desire  to  be  informed,  'tis  good  to  contest 
with  men  above  ourselves  ;  but,  to  confirm  and  establish 
our  opinions,  'tis  best  to  argue  with  judgments  below 
our  own,  that  the  frequent  spoils  and  victories  over 
their  reasons  may  settle  in  ourselves  an  esteem  and  con- 
firmed opinion  of  our  own." 

The  treatise  on  vulgar  errors,  "Pseudodoxia  Epidem- 
ica,"  is  an  amusing  examination  of  a  great  number  of 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD.  221 

popular  customs  and  received  explanations,  which,  after 
holding  their  ground  for  ages  during  the  long  night  of 
science  and  philosophy,  were  now  breaking  down  on  all 
sides  under  the  attacks  of  the  enfranchised  intellect. 
"  The  Garden  of  Cyrus  "  is  an  abstruse  dissertation  on 
the  wonderful  virtue  and  significance  of  the  quincuncial 
form.  This  is  mere  mysticism,  and  of  no  more  value 
than  the  dreams  of  the  Pythagoreans  as  to  the  virtue 
of  particular  numbers. 

Physical   Science. 

The  present  Royal  Society,  incorporated,  with  a  view 
to  the  promotion  of  physical  science,  in  1662,  arose  out 
of  some  scientific  meetings  held  at  Oxford  in  the  rooms 
of  Dr.  Wilkins,  the  President  of  Wadham  College. 
They  soon  had  the  honor  of  numbering  among  their 
fellows  the  great  Newton,  some  of  whose  principal  dis- 
coveries were  first  made  known  to  the  world  in  their 
"  Proceedings. "  Newton  was  educated  at  Trinity  Col- 
lege, Cambridge  ;  in  the  chapel  of  which  society  may 
be  seen  a  noble  statue  of  him  by  Roubillac,  with  the 
inscription,  "  Qui  genus  humanum  ingenio  superavit." 

19* 


222  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY. 

WE  will  commence,  as  in  the  last  period,  with  a  brief 
summary  of  the  political  history. 

The  opening  of  the  century  beheld  the  firm  establish- 
ment of  the  state  of  things  brought  in  at  the  Revolution 
of  1688,  by  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  Settlement,  limit- 
ing the  succession  to  the  crown  to  Sophia,  wife  of  the 
elector  of  Hanover,  and  the  heirs  of  her  body,  being 
Protestants.  Upon  the  accession  of  Anne  in  1702,  a 
Tory  ministry  came  into  power  for  a  short  time.  But 
its  principal  member  —  the  able  and  unprincipled  Godol- 
phin  —  passed  over  to  the  Whigs ;  and  it  was  Whig 
policy  which  engaged  the  nation  in  the  war  of  the 
Spanish  succession.  Marlborough,  the  great  Whig 
general,  was  closely  connected  with  Godolphin  by  mar- 
riage. Every  one  has  heard  of  the  victories  of  Blen- 
heim, Ramillies,  and  Oudenarde.  The  Whig  ministry 
was  dismissed  in  1710 ;  and  their  Tory  successors, 
Harley  Earl  of  Oxford,  and  St.  John  Lord  Bolingbroke, 
concluded  the  peace  of  Utrecht  in  1713.  But  at  the 
death  of  Anne,  in  the  following  year,  the  Tory  ministers, 
who  showed  symptoms  of  favoring  the  claims  of  the 
Pretender  (the  son  of  James  II.),  were  at  once  hurled 
from  power  ;  and  the  long  period  of  Whig  rule  com- 
menced, which  only  ended  with  the  resignation  of  Sir 
Robert  Walpole,  in  1742.  This  celebrated  minister 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  223 

practically  ruled  the  country  for  twenty-one  years,  from 
1721  to  1742,  during  which  period  England,  through 
him,  preserved  peace  with  foreign  powers ;  and  such 
wars  as  arose  on  the  Continent  were  shorter  and  less 
destructive  than  they  would  otherwise  have  been.  But 
in  1741  the  temper  of  the  country  had  become  so  war- 
like that  a  peace  policy  was  no  longer  practicable  9  and 
Walpole  was  forced  to  succumb.  The  administration 
which  succeeded,  in  which  the  leading  spirit  was  that 
fine  scholar  and  high-minded  nobleman,  Lord  Carteret 
(afterwards  Earl  Granville),  engaged  in  the  Austrian 
succession  war  on  the  side  of  Maria  Theresa.  England 
played  no  very  distinguished  part  in  this  war,  the  suc- 
cess at  Dettingen  (1743)  being  more  than  counter- 
balanced by  the  reverse  at  Fontenoy  two  years  later. 
The  intrigues  of  the  Pelhams  drove  Lord  Granville 
from  office  in  1744 ;  and  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  with 
his  brother  Mr.  Pelham,  formed,  with  the  aid  of  the 
leaders  of  the  opposition,  what  was  called  the  "  Broad- 
bottom  "  ministry.  Newcastle  —  a  man  of  small  ability, 
but  strong  in  his  extensive  parliamentary  influence  — 
remained  prime  minister  for  twelve  years.  In  1745 
occurred  the  insurrection  of  the  Highland  clans  in  favor 
of  the  Prince  Charles  Edward,  grandson  of  James  II. 
After  defeating  the  royal  troops  at  Prestonpans,  the 
Prince  marched  into  England,  and  penetrated  as  far  as 
Derby.  But,  meeting  with  no  support,  he  was  com- 
pelled to  retreat ;  and  in  the  following  year  his  followers 
were  totally  routed  by  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  at 
Culloden.  The -Continental  war  was  terminated  by  the 
peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  in  1748.  At  the  breaking-out 
of  the  Seven  Years'  War  in  1756,  in  which  England 
was  allied  with  Frederick  of  Prussia  against  France  and 
Russia,  the  Duke  of  Newcastle's  incapacity  caused 
every  thing  to  miscarry.  Minorca  was  lost;  and  the 


224  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Duke  of  Cumberland  capitulated,  with  his  whole  army, 
to  the  French,  at  Closter-seven.  Pitt,  the  great  com- 
moner, the  honest  statesman,  the  terrible  and  resistless 
orator,  had  to  be  admitted,  though  sorely  against  the 
king's  will,  to  a  seat  in  the  cabinet.  The  force  of  his 
genius,  and  the  contagion  of  his  enthusiasm,  effected  a 
marvellous  change  ;  and  the  memorable  year  1759  wit- 
nessed the  triumph  of  the  allies  at  Minden,  the  victory 
of  Wolfe  on  the  Heights  of  Abraham,  which  led  to  the 
conquest  of  Canada,  and  the  defeat  of  the  French  fleet 
by  Hawke  off  Belleisle. 

Pitt  had  to  resign  in  1761,  making  way  for  the  king's 
favorite,  Lord  Bute,  who  concluded  the  treaty  of  Fon- 
tainebleau  at  the  end  of  1762,  by  which  Canada,  Cape 
Breton,  part  of  Louisiana,  Florida,  the  Senegal,  and 
Minorca  were  ceded  to  Britain.  For  the  next  twelve 
years  England  was  universally  regarded  as  the  most 
powerful  and  successful  nation  in  Europe.  But  the 
war  had  been  frightfully  expensive  ;  and  Mr.  Grenville, 
who  was  prime  minister  from  1763  to  1765,  conceived 
in  an  unlucky  hour  the  idea  that  a  revenue  could  be 
raised  from  America  by  taxes  laid  on  the  colonies  by 
the  authority  of  parliament.  The  repeal  of  the  Stamp 
Act  in  1766  delayed  the  bursting  of  the  storm  ;  but 
fresh  attempts  at  taxation  being  made,  and  resisted  by 
the  people  of  Boston,  the  war  of  independence  broke  out 
in  the  year  1775,  and  through  the  help  of  France, 
which  allied  itself  with  the  new  Republic  in  1778, 
resulted  in  the  recognition  by  Great  Britain  of  the 
independence  of  the  United  States  in  1783.  Lord 
Chatham,  who  had  all  along  condemned  the  awkward 
and  irritating  measures  of  coercion  employed  by  the 
ministry,  vainly  opposed,  in  his  memorable  dying  speech 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  "  the  dismemberment  of  this 
ancient  monarchy." 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  225 

The  administration  which  conducted  the  American 
war  was  presided  over  by  the  Tory  premier,  Lord 
North,  who  governed  the  country  for  twelve  years, 
from  1770  to  1782.  Up  to  the  former  date  the  powers 
of  government  had,  ever  since  1688,  been  exercised, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  brief  intervals,  by  the  great 
Whig  families,  —  the  Russells,  Pelhams,  Fitzroys,  Ben- 
tincks,  &c.  (together  with  the  commoners  whom  they 
selected  to  assist  them),  —  who  prided  themselves  on 
having  brought  about  the  Revolution.  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  on  the  whole  this  junto  governed  with  great 
vigor  and  success,  and  that  the  English  aristocracy 
never  showed  itself  to  greater  advantage.  With  the 
advent  of  Lord  North  to  power,  all  was  changed.  Great 
questions  were  handled  by  little  men  ;  and  the  prepon- 
derance of  intellectual  power  remained  always  on  the 
side  of  the  opposition,  which  numbered  Fox,  Burke, 
Barr£,  Dunning,  and  Sheridan  in  its  ranks.  At  length, 
in  1782,  Lord  North  was  driven  from  the  helm  ;  and 
after  the  brief  administrations  of  the  Marquis  of  Rock- 
ingham  and  Lord  Shelburne,  and  that  which  resulted 
from  the  coalition  of  Fox  with  Lord  North,  the  younger 
Pitt  came  into  power  at  the  end  of  1783,  and  com- 
menced his  long  and  eventful  career  as  prime  minister. 
His  policy  was  at  first  purely  Whig  and  constitutional, 
like  that  of  his  father;  but,  after  1789,  the  attitude 
which  he  was  compelled  to  take  in  relation  to  the 
extreme  or  revolutionary  liberalism  of  France  gradually 
changed  the  position  of  his  government  to  such  an 
extent  as  to  make  it  essentially  Tory,  as  being  support- 
ed by  the  Tory  party  in  parliament  and  in  the  country. 
Pitt,  however,  remained  personally  a  sincere  and  con- 
sistent Liberal  to  the  last. 


226  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

General  Characteristics :  Pope  and  Johnson,  Poetry  from  1700  to 
1745,  Pope,  Addison,  Gay,  Parnell,  Swift,  Thomson,  Prior, 
Garth,  Blackmore,  Defoe,  Tickell,  Savage,  Dyer,  A.  Philips, 
J.  Philips,  Watts,  Ramsay. 

The  eighteenth  century  was  a  period  of  repose  and 
stability  in  England's  political  history.  Saved  by  her 
insular  position  from  the  desolating  wars  which  ravaged 
the  Continent,  and  acquiescing  in  the  compromise  be- 
tween theoretical  liberty  and  prescriptive  right  estab- 
lished at  the  Revolution  of  1688,  the  nation  enjoyed 
during  the  whole  of  the  period,  except  in  the  Jacobite 
risings  of  1715  and  1745,  profound  internal  peace. 
Then  was  the  time,  it  might  have  been  imagined,  for 
the  fructification,  under  the  most  favorable  circum- 
stances, of  whatever  germs  of  thought  the  philosophy 
and  poetry  of  preceding  ages  had  implanted  in  the  Eng- 
lish mind,  in  the  noblest  and  purest  forms  of  literature 
and  art. 

Such,  however,  was  far  from  being  the  case.  The 
literature  of  the  eighteenth  century,  though  occupying 
a  large  space  to  our  eyes  at  the  present  day,  from  the 
proximity  of  the  time,  and  the  want  of  other  thinkers 
who  have  taken  up  the  ground  more  satisfactorily,  is 
for  the  most  part  essentially  of  the  fugitive  sort,  and 
will  probably  be  considered  in  future  ages  as  not  having 
treated  with  true  appreciation  one  single  subject  which 
it  has  handled.  To  speculate  upon  the  cause  of  this 
inferiority,  does  not  lie  within  the  scope  of  the  present 
work  :  we  have  simply  to  note  the  fact. 

The  rising  of  the  clans  in  1745  divides  our  period 
into  two  nearly  equal  portions,  of  the  first  of  which 
Pope  may  be  taken  as  the  representative  author  ;  of  the 
second,  Johnson. 

Alexander  Pope  was  born  at  the  house  of  his  father, 
a  linen-merchant,  residing  in  Lombard  Street,  London, 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  227 

in  the  year  1688.  A  sojourn  at  Lisbon  had  led  to  the 
father's  conversion  to  the  Roman  Catholic  faith ;  and 
young  Pope  was  brought  up,  so  far  as  circumstances 
would  allow,  in  the  rigid  belief  and  practice  of  his 
father's  creed.  His  religion  excluded  him  from  the 
public  schools  and  universities  of  England  ;  his  educa- 
tion was  therefore  private,  and  not,  it  would  appear,  of 
the  best  kind.  Such  as  it  was,  it  was  not  continued 
long ;  so  that  Pope  may  be  considered  as  eminently  a 
self-taught  man,  —  a  self-cultivated  poet.  His  poetic 
gift  manifested  itself  early  :  — 

"  As  yet  a  child,  nor  yet  a  fool  to  fame, 
I  lisped  in  numbers,  for  the  numbers  came." 

The  classical  poets  soon  became  his  chief  study  and 
delight ;  and  he  valued  the  moderns  in  proportion  as 
they  had  drunk  more  or  less  deeply  of  the  classical 
spirit.  The  genius  of  the  Gothic  or  Romantic  ages  in- 
spired him  at  this  time  with  no  admiration  whatever  ; 
so  that  in  the  retrospect  of  the  poetical  and  critical 
masterpieces  of  past  times,  which  concluded  the  third 
book  of  "The  Essay  on  Criticism,"  he  can  find  no  bright 
spot  in  the  thick  intellectual  darkness,  from  the  down- 
fall of  the  Western  Empire  to  the  age  of  Leo  X.  The 
only  native  writers  whom  he  deigns  to  mention  are  — 
Roscommon  and  Walsh  !  To  the  author  of  "The  Essay 
on  Translated  Verse  "  he  was,  indeed,  largely  indebted, 
not  only  for  the  general  conception  of  "  The  Essay  on 
Criticism,"  but  even  for  some  of  the  best  expressions  in 
it.1  Walsh  too,  who  was  a  man  of  fortune,  was  his  patron 

1  Eoscommon  has,  speaking  of  Dryden  — 

"And  with  a  brave  disorder  shows  his  art." 
Pope  follows  with,  — 

"  From  vulgar  bounds  with  brave  disorder  part." 


228  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

and  kind  entertainer ;  and  gratitude  led  Pope  to  do  him, 
as  a  poet,  a  little  more  than  justice.  But,  in  spite  of 
minor  blemishes,  one  cannot  be  blind  to  the  transcend- 
ent merits  of  this  production,  which,  taken  as  the 
composition  of  a  youth  of  twenty  or  twenty-one,  is  an 
intellectual  and  rhythmical  achievement  perhaps  unpar- 
alleled. 

In  a  memorable  passage,  containing  not  a  few  illus- 
trious names,  Pope  has  told  us  how  he  came  to  pub- 
lish :  — 

"  But  why,  then,  publish?    Granville  the  polite, 
And  knowing  Walsh,  would  tell  me  I  could  write ; 
Well-natured  Garth  inflamed  with  early  praise; 
And  Congreve  loved,  and  Swift  endured  my  lays; 
The  courtly  Talbot,  Somers,  Sheffield,  read ; 
E'en  mitred  Rochester  would  nod  the  head; 
And  St.  John's  self  (great  Dryden's  friend  before) 
With  open  arms  received  one  poet  more."  * 

Dryden  he  had  just  seen,  and  no  more  ("  Virgilium  tan- 
turn  vidi "  is  his  expression),  in  the  last  year  of  the  old 
poet's  life,  he  being  then  a  boy  of  twelve.  He  knew 
Wycherley  the  dramatist,  then  a  somewhat  battered, 
worn-out  relic  of  the  gay  reign  of  Charles  II.,  and 
wrote  an  excellent  letter  on  the  occasion  of  his  death 
in  1716.  His  relations  to  Addison  were  characteristic 
on  both  sides.  Steele  introduced  them  to  each  other  in 
1712.  Several  trifling  circumstances  which  occurred  in 
the  three  following  years  conspired  to  create  an  unpleas- 

Again,  Roscommon  has,  — 

"  Then  make  the  proper  use  of  each  extreme, 
And  write  with  fury,  but  correct  with  phlegm." 

Of  this  Pope's  lines  are  but  the  echo,  — 

"  Our  critics  take  a  contrary  extreme: 
They  judge  with  fury,  but  correct  with  phlegm." 

1  "  Imitations  of  Horace." 


EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  229 

ant  state  of  feeling  between  them,  which  was  brought 
to  a  climax  in  1715,  by  the  encouragement  given  by 
Addison  to  his  friend  Tickell  in  his  project  of  a  rival 
translation  of  Homer.  Pope's  version  and  that  by 
Tickell  came  out  nearly  together ;  and  nothing  can  be 
clearer  than  the  great  superiority  of  the  former.  Yet 
Addison  (one  cannot  but  fear,  out  of  jealousy),  while 
praising  both  translations,  pronounced  that  Tickell's 
"  had  more  of  Homer."  This  was  the  occasion  of 
Pope's  writing  that  wonderful  piece  of  satire  which 
will  be  found  at  a  subsequent  page.1  Addison  made 
no  direct  reply ;  but  a  few  months  later  he,  in  a  paper 
published  in  "  The  Freeholder,"  spoke  in  terms  of  high 
praise  of  Pope's  translation.  The  poet's  susceptible 
nature  was  touched  by  this  generosity  ;  and  he,  in  his 
turn,  immortalized  Addison  in  his  fifth  satire :  — 

"  And  in  our  days  (excuse  some  courtly  stains) 
No  whiter  page  than  Addison  remains ; 
He  from  the  taste  obscene  reclaims  our  youth, 
And  sets  the  passions  on  the  side  of  truth ; 
Forms  the  soft  bosom  with  the  gentlest  art, 
And  pours  each  human  virtue  in  the  heart." 

Far  more  close  and  cordial  were  the  relations  between 
Pope  and  Swift.  Their  acquaintance  began  at  the  time 
of  Swift's  residence  in  London,  between  1710  and  1713. 
The  famous  dean  was  twenty-one  years  older  than 
Pope  ;  but  there  must  have  been  a  strong  inherent  sym- 
pathy between  their  characters,  for  they  became  fast 
friends  at  once,  and  continued  so  until  Swift's  mind 
broke  down.  Each  had  all  the  tastes  of  the  author  and 
man  of  letters ;  each  was  audacious  and  satirical ;  each 
saw  through  and  despised  the  hollowness  of  society, 
though  in  their  different  ways  each  strove  to  raise  him- 
self in  it.  Swift's  ambition  was  for  power ;  he  wished 

1  See  p.  411 


230  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

that  his  literary  successes  should  serve  merely  as  a  basis 
and  vantage-ground  whence  to  scale  the  high  places 
of  the  state  :  Pope's  ambition  was  purely  for  fame  ;  and 
he  regarded  literary  success  not  as  a  means,  but  as  an 
end.  It  certainly  shows  some  real  elevation  of  soul  in 
both,  that  two  men,  each  so  irritable,  and  whose  very 
points  of  resemblance  might  have  made  it  easier  for 
them  to  come  into  collision,  should  have  remained 
steady  friends  for  twenty-five  years.  The  utter  absence 
of  jealousy  in  both  will  perhaps  account  for  the  fact. 
Soon  after  they  became  acquainted,  Swift  was  able  to 
do  Pope  a  great  service.  In  1713  the  prospectus  of 
the  translation  of  the  "  Iliad  "  appeared ;  and  Swift, 
who  was  at  that  time  a  real  power  in  London  society, 
used  his  opportunities  to  get  the  subscription-list  well 
filled.  Chiefly  by  his  exertions,  the  list  became  such  a 
long  one,  that  the  proceeds  amounted  to  a  small  fortune 
for  Pope,  and  set  him  at  ease  on  the  score  of  money 
matters  for  the  remainder  of  his  life.  His  labors  in 
connection  with  the  translation  of  Homer  extended 
from  1713  to  1725.  He  employed  in  translating  "  The 
Odyssey  "  the  services  of  two  minor  poets,  Fenton  and 
Broome,  so  that  only  one-half  of  the  version  is  from  his 
own  hand.  "  The  Pastorals,"1  "  Windsor  Forest,"2  and 
"  The  Rape  of  the  Lock"  3  appeared  in  the  years  1704, 
1713,  and  1714  respectively. 

In  1725  Pope  published  an  edition  of  Shakspeare. 
His  preface  shows  a  juster  appreciation  of  the  great 
dramatist  than  was  then  common ;  yet  his  own  taste 
pointed  too  decidedly  to  the  French  and  classical  school 
to  admit  of  his  doing  full  justice  to  the  chief  of  the 
romantic.  He  was  the  first  to  amend  two  or  three 
corrupt  readings  by  slight  and  happy  alterations,  which 
have  since  been  generally  adopted.  Such  is  the  substi- 

i  See  p.  422.  2  See  p.  425.  8  See  p.  370. 


EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  231 

tution  of  "  south  "  for  the  old  reading  "  sound,"  in  the 
lines  in  "  Twelfth  Night,"  — 

"  Oh !  it  came  o'er  mine  ear  like  the  sweet  south 
That  breathes  over  a  bank  of  violets,"  — 

and  of  "  strides"  for  "  sides  "  (" and  Tarquin's  ravishing 
strides  "),  in  "  Macbeth." 

The  first  three  books  of  the  "  Dunciad,"  which  was 
dedicated  to  Swift,  appeared  anonymously  in  1728.  In 
it  the  poet  revenges  himself  on  a  number  of  obscure 
poets  and  feeble  critics,  who  had  —  though  not  without 
provocation  —  attacked  and  libelled  him.  The  very 
obscurity  of  these  individuals  detracts  much  from  the 
permanent  interest  of  the  satire.  The  persons  and 
parties  introduced  by  Dryden  in  his  "  Absalom  and 
Achitophel "  occupied  elevated  situations  upon  the 
public  stage ;  and,  as  the  satire  itself  is  conceived  and 
composed  in  a  corresponding  strain  of  elevation,  it  is 
probable,  that,  so  long  as  English  history  interests  us, 
that  satire  will  be  read.  But  the  Cookes,  Curlls,  Con~ 
canens,  and  other  personages  of  the  "  Dunciad,"  are  to 
us  simple  names  which  suggest  no  ideas ;  and  even  the 
intellectual  mastery  of  the  author,  great  though  it  be, 
is  hardly  so  evident  to  us  as  the  frantic  vindictiveness 
which  strains  every  nerve  to  say  the  most  wounding 
and  humiliating  things. 

The  famous  "  Essay  on  Man  " l  appeared  anonymously 
in  1732.  It  was  the  fruit  of  Pope's  familiar  intercourse 
with  the  sceptic  Lord  Bolingbroke,  and  reflects  in  the 
popular  literature  the  opinions  of  a  philosophical  school 
presently  to  be  noticed.  No  poem  in  the  language  con- 
tains a  greater  number  of  single  lines  which  have  passed 

1  See  p.  400. 


232  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

into  proverbs.1  The  various  satirical  pieces  known  as 
"  The  Moral  Essays "  and  "  The  Imitations  of  Hor- 
ace,"2 with  prologue  and  epilogue,  were  published 
between  the  years  1731  and  1738.  A  fourth  book  was 
added  to  the  "  Dunciad  " s  in  1742 ;  and  the  whole 
poem  was  re-cast,  so  as  to  assign  the  distinction  of  king 
of  the  dunces  to  Colley  Gibber,  the  poet-laureate, 
instead  of  Theobald.  Pope  died  in  May,  1744. 

Politically,  Pope  occupied  through  life  a  position  of 
much  dignity.  Both  Halifax  and  Secretary  Craggs 
desired  to  pension  him,  but  he  declined  their  offers. 
Thanks  to  Homer,  he  could  say  truly,  — 

"  I  live  and  thrive, 
Indebted  to  no  prince  or  peer  alive." 

His  neutral  position  is  again  indicated  in  t'ie  lines,  — 

"  In  moderation  placing  all  my  glory, 
While  Tories  call  me  Whig,  and  Whigs  a  Tory." 

But  in  principle  it  is  clear  that  he  infinitely  preferred 
the  politics  of  Locke  to  those  of  Filmer.  This  is  proved 
by  such  lines  as,  — 

"  For  sure,  if  Dulness  sees  a  grateful  day, 
'Tis  in  the  shade  of  arbitrary  sway. 


May  you,  my  Cam  and  Isis,  preach  it  Ion?" 
*  The  right  divine  of  kings  to  govern  wronk  ' " 

1  For  example :  — 

"A  mighty  maze,  but  not  without  a  plan." 
"  The  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man." 
"  The  enormous  faith  of  many  made  for  one.'* 
"  Worth  makes  the  man,  and  want  of  it  the  fc*!" 

The  rest  is  all  but  leather  or  prunella." 
"An  honest  man's  the  noblest  work  of  God." 
"Damned  to  everlasting  fame." 
"  But  looks  through  Nature  up  to  Nature's  God." 
"  From  grave  to  gay,  from  lively  to  severe,"  &c. 

2  See  pp.  409,  410.  3  See  p.  234. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  233 

On  the  other  hand,  some  of  his  dearest  and  most 
intimate  friends,  as  Swift  and  Bolingbroke,  were  Tories. 

In  religious  belief,  Pope  was  of  course  professedly  a 
Roman  Catholic;  but  there  is  scarcely  a  page  of  his 
poetry  in  which  the  leaven  of  that  scepticism  which 
pervaded  the  society  in  which  he  moved  may  not  be 
traced.  At  the  court  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  at  Rich- 
mond, where  Pope  was  a  frequent  and  welcome  guest, 
free-thinking  was  in  favor,  and  Tindal,  the  deist,  was 
zealously  patronized :  — 

"  But  art  thou  one  whom  new  opinions  sway, 
One  who  believes  where  Tindal  leads  the  way  ?  " 

The  religious  indifferentism  which  Pope  assumed  had 
undoubtedly  many  conveniences,  in  an  age  when  serious 
and  bond  fide  Romanism  was  repressed  by  every  kind  of 
vexatious  penal  disability,  and  the  literary  circle  in 
which  he  lived  was  composed  exclusive  of  Protestants 
or  unbelievers.  He  styled  himself,  — 

"  Papist  or  Protestant,  or  both  between, 
Like  good  Erasmus,  in  an  honest  mean." 

Perhaps,  too,  it  may  be  said,  that,  independently  of 
external  influences,  his  own  highly  intellectualized 
nature  predisposed  him  to  set  reason  above  faith,  to 
value  thinkers  more  than  saints.  But  he  would  not  let 
himself  be  driven  or  persuaded  into  any  act  of  formal 
apostasy.  When,  upon  the  death  of  his  father  in  1717, 
his  friend  Bishop  Atterbury  hinted  that  he  was  now  free 
to  consult  his  worldly  interests  by  joining  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  Pope  absolutely  rejected  the  proposal  ; 
upon  singular  and  chiefly  personal  grounds,  it  is  true, 
but  so  decidedly  as  to  make  it  impossible  that  the 
advice  should  be  repeated.  As  he  grew  older,  Pope's 
sympathies  with  the  free-thinking  school,  at  least  with 
20* 


234  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

the  rank  and  file  of  their  writers,  seem  to  have  declined. 
Very  disrespectful  mention  is  made  of  them  in  the 
"  Dunciad."  Their  spokesman  is  thus  introduced  in 
the  fourth  book :  — 

"  '  Be  that  my  task,'  replies  a  gloomy  clerk, 
Sworn  foe  to  mystery,  yet  divinely  dark ; 
Whose  pious  hope  aspires  to  see  the  day 
When  moral  evidence  shall  quite  decay, 
And  damns  implicit  faith  and  holy  lies, 
Prompt  to  impose,  and  fond  to  dogmatize." 

Finally,  whatever  may  have  been  the  aberrations  of 
his  life,  its  closing  scene  was  one  of  faith  and  pious 
resignation.  The  priest  who  administered  to  him  the 
last  sacraments  "  came  out  from  the  dying  man,  .  .  . 
penetrated  to  the  last  degree  with  the  state  of  mind  in 
which  he  found  his  penitent,  resigned,  and  wrapt  up 
in  the  love  of  God  and  man."  l  Bolingbroke,  like  the 
friends  of  Bcranger  on  a  like  occasion,  is  said  to  have 
flown  into  a  great  fit  of  passion  at  hearing  of  the  priest 
being  called  in. 

The  reign  of  Anne  was  considered  in  the  last  century 
to  be  the  Augustan  age  of  English  literature;  nor, 
when  we  remember  the  great  number  of  poets  who 
then  flourished,  the  high  patronage  which  many  of  them 
received,  and  the  extent  to  which  literary  tastes  then 
pervaded  the  upper  ranks  of  society,  shall  we  pronounce 
the  term  altogether  misplaced.  At  any  rate,  by  con- 
trast to  the  middle  period  of  the  century,  its  opening 
was  bright  indeed.  Johnson,  in  the  Life  of  Prior, 
observes,  "  Every  thing  has  its  day.  Through  the 
reigns  of  William  and  Anne,  no  prosperous  event  passed 
undignified  by  poetry.  In  the  last  war  [the  seven 
years'  war],  when  France  was  disgraced  and  over- 
powered in  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  when  Spain, 

1  Carruthers'  Life  of  Pope. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTUKY.  235 

coming  to  her  assistance,  only  shared  her  calamities,  and 
the  name  of  an  Englishman  was  reverenced  through 
Europe,  no  poet  was  heard  midst  the  general  acclama- 
tion ;  the  fame  of  our  councillors  and  heroes  was  intrusted 
to  the  gazetteer."  The  genius  of  Chatham,  the  heroism 
of  Wolfe,  are  unsung  to  this  day. 

Addison,  the  son  of  a  Westmoreland  clergyman,  was 
singled  out,  while  yet  at  Oxford,  as  a  fit  object  for 
Government  patronage,  and  sent  to  travel  with  a  pen- 
sion. In  that  learned  but  then  disloyal  university,  a 
sincere  and  clever  Whig  was  a  phenomenon  so  rare, 
that  the  Whig  ministry  seem  to  have  thought  they 
could  not  do  too  much  to  encourage  the  growth  of  the 
species.  While  on  the  Continent,  Addison  produced 
several  heroic  poems  in  praise  of  King  William,  written 
in  the  heroic  couplet,  in  which  Dryden  had  achieved  so 
much.  In  1704  he  celebrated  in  "  The  Campaign  "  l  the 
battle  of  Blenheim.  For  this  he  was  rewarded  with  the 
post  of  Commissioner  of  Appeals.  His  well-known 
hymns, —  "  The  spacious  firmament  on  high,"  and  "  The 
Lord  my  pasture  shall  prepare,"  —  though  the  imagery  is 
unreal,  have  yet  a  certain  mingled  sweetness  and  force 
about  them,  which  will  not  let  them  be  easily  forgotten. 
His  dramatic  and  prose  works  will  be  noticed  presently. 

The  poet  Gay  was  also  dependent  on  patrons ;  but 
they  were  in  his  case  private  noblemen,  not  ministers 
of  state.  This  kindly-natured  man,  whom  Pope  de- 
scribes as  — 

"  In  wit  a  man,  simplicity  a  child," 

belonged  to  the  race  of  careless,  thoughtless  poets, 
described  by  Horace,  who  are  ill  fitted  to  battle  with 
the  world.  But  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Queensberry 
took  him  into  their  house  during  the  latter  years  of  his 

1  See  p.  368. 


236  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

life,  and  managed  his  affairs  for  him,  thus  relieving  him 
from  the  embarrassments  which  beset  him.  He  died  at 
the  early  age  of  forty-four. 

Gay  is  the  author  of  "  Rural  Sports,"  a  poem  in  heroic  metro, 
answering  to  the  description  of  the  " lesser  epic ;"  of  "The  Fan,"  a 
mock-heroic  poem  in  three  books,  evidently  suggested  by  Pope's 
"Rape  of  the  Lock;  "  of  the  "  Shepherd's  Week,"  a  burlesque  upon 
the  "Pastorals"  of  Ambrose  Philips;  and  of  "Trivia,"  a  sort  of 
humorous  didactic  poem  on  the  art  of  walking  the  streets  of 
London.  None  of  these  poems  rise  above  mediocrity,  though  each 
presents  certain  points  of  interest.  It  is  in  right  of  his  inimitable 
songs  and  ballads  that  Gay's  name  still  lives  and  will  live.  Among 
these  are  "All  in  the  Downs,"  "'Twas  when  the  Seas  were  roaring," 
the  gloriously-absurd  ballad  of  "  Molly  Mog,"  a  story  of  a  Quaker's 
courtship,  called  "The  Espousal,"  "  Newgate's  Garland,"  and  others. 
His  well-known  "  Fables  "  are  neatly  and  flowingly  turned,  and  that 
is  all.i 

Parnell  is  now  only  remembered  as  the  author  of 
"The  Hermit."2  He  was  the  friend  of  Harley,  Earl 
of  Oxford,  to  whom  Pope  sent  the  edition  of  his  poems, 
of  which  he  superintended  the  publication  after  his 
death,  recommending  them  to  the  fallen  statesman  in  a 
few  graceful  lines,  musical  but  weighty,  such  as  Pope 
alone  could  write. 

Swift,  to  whom  Pope  dedicated  the  "  Dunciad "  in 
the  well-known  lines,  — 

"  Oh !  thou,  whatever  title  please  thine  ear, 
Dean,  Drapier,  Bickerstaff,  or  Gulliver; 
Whether  thou  choose  Cervantes'  serious  air, 
Or  laugh  and  shake  in  Rabelais'  easy-chair ; 
Or  praise  the  court,  or  magnify  mankind, 
Or  thy  grieved  country's  copper  chains  unbind,"  — 

was  a  copious  writer  in  verse  no  less  than  in  prose. 
His  poems  extend  to  nearly  twice  the  length  of  those 
of  Thomson,  and  consist  of  odes,  epistles,  epigrams, 
songs,  satires,  and  epitaphs. 

1  See  p.  391.  2  See  p.  384. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTUKY.  237 

Of  Swift's  poetry  he  has  himself  taken  care  that  much  should  not 
be  said  in  praise.  A  man  of  his  powers  could  have  written  a  great 
satire  or  didactic  poem  which  would  have  delighted  the  world.  But 
he  loathed  the  world,  and  therefore  did  not  wish  to  delight  it ;  and, 
because  the  general  taste  of  the  age  was  in  favor  of  the  serious  char- 
acter and  dignified  movement  of  heroic  verse,  he  carefully  avoided 
that  metre,  and  wrote  nearly  all  his  poetry  in  jingling,  careless  octo- 
syllabics. Most  of  his  poems,  which  are  very  numerous,  are  essen- 
tially of  a  fugitive  character.  Many  short  epigrammatic  things  were 
written  with  a  diamond  ring  on  inn-windows,  a  practice  of  which  he 
was  very  fond.  Many  take  the  forms  of  sallies  and  rejoinders,  pass- 
ing to  and  fro  between  the  dean  and  one  or  other  of  his  lively  Dublin 
friends.  Many  are  addressed  to  Stella,1  or  written  in  her  honor. 
One  of  the  longest,  "Cadenus  and  Vanessa,"  was  addressed  to  Esther 
Vanhomrigh,  the  lady  whose  intellectual  education  was  directed  by 
Swift,  and  who  conceived  an  ardent  passion  for  him,  which  he  de- 
scribed, while  he  checked,  in  this  poem.  The  disappointment  of  her 
hopes,  added  to  the  discovery  of  his  private  marriage  to  Stella, 
brought  poor  Vanessa  to  her  grave.  A  long  and  unclouded  friend- 
ship subsisted  between  Swift  and  Pope ;  they  corresponded  regularly, 
and  their  letters  have  been  published. 

James  Thomson,  the  author  of  "The  Seasons,"2  was 
the  son  of  a  Scotch  Presbyterian  minister.  Showing  a 
bias  to  literature,  he  was  advised  to  repair  to  the  great 
stage  of  London,  "  a  place  too  wide  for  the  operation 
of  petty  competition  and  private  malignity,  where 
merit  might  soon  become  conspicuous,  and  would  find 
friends  as  soon  as  it  became  reputable  to  befriend  it."3 
The  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  "  Winter  "  were  all  that  he 
had  to  depend  upon  for  some  time  after  his  arrival  in 
the  metropolis.  By  degrees  he  acquired  a  reputation, 
and  a  fair  share  of  patronage,  from  which  only  his 
invincible  laziness  prevented  him  from  reaping  greater 
benefit.  Pope  countenanced  his  tragedy  of  "  Agamem- 
non "  by  coming  to  it  the  first  night,  and  expressed  his 

1  The  real  name  of  Stella  was  Hester  Johnson ;  this  lady  lived  in 
Swift's  house  for  twenty-eight  years,  but  is  said,  even  after  her  mar- 
riage to  him  in  1716,  never  to  have  seen  him  except  before  a  third 
person. 

2  See  p.  426.  8  Johnson. 


238  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

personal  regard  for  him  in  a  poetical  epistle.  Besides 
"  The  Seasons,"  he  wrote  "  Liberty,"  a  tedious,  high- 
flown  production,  which  no  one  read,  even  at  its  first 
appearance ;  "  Britannia,"  an  attack  on  Sir  Robert 
Walpole's  government;  and  "The  Castle  of  Indo- 
lence." :  After  Walpole's  downfall,  he  obtained  a 
sinecure  place  through  the  influence  of  his  friend 
Lyttleton,  but  did  not  long  enjoy  it,  dying,  after  a 
short  illness,  in  1748. 

Matthew  Prior,  a  native  of  Dorsetshire,  from  an 
obscure  origin  rose  to  considerable  eminence,  both 
literary  and  political.  In  early  life  he  was  a  Whig, 
and  first  came  into  notice  as  the  author,  jointly  with 
Charles  Montague,  of  "  The  City  Mouse  and  Country 
Mouse."  In  1701  he  ratted  to  the  Tories,  and  made 
himself  so  useful  to  the  party  as  to  be  selected  to  man- 
age several  delicate  negotiations  with  foreign  powers,  in 
particular  that  which  resulted  in  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht. 
His  behavior  on  this  occasion  exposed  him,  though  it 
would  appear  unjustly,  to  heavy  charges  from  the  Whig 
ministry  which  came  into  power  in  1714 ;  and  he  was 
thrown  into  prison,  and  kept  there  for  more  than  two 
years.  His  old  associates  probably  considered  him  as  a 
renegade,  and  dealt  out  to  him  an  unusual  measure  of 
severity. 

There  is  much  that  is  sprightly  and  pointed  in  Prior's  loyal  odes, 
which  he  designed  to  rival  those  which  Boileau  was  composing  at  the 
same  time  in  honor  of  the  Grand  Monarque,  Louis  XIV.  But  it  is 
in  his  epigrams  and  "  verses  of  society  "  that  Prior  is  most  successful. 
How  charmingly,  for  instance,  has  he  turned  the  stanzas  in  which  he 
describes  his  doubtful  cure  by  Dr.  Radcliffe,  or  those  upon  a  lady 
refusing  to  continue  a  dispute  with  him,  or  the  lines  upon  "  The 
Lady's  Looking-Glass  " !  How  manly,  English,  and  sensible  is  the 
advice  to  a  jealous  husband  in  "The  Padlock,"  not  to  immure  his 
wife  or  set  spies  over  her,  as  they  did  abroad,  but  give  her  free  liberty 

i  See  p.  S90. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  239 

to  range  over  this  wretched  world  and  see  how  hollow  and  false  it  is ! 
This  poem  ends  with  some  far-famed  lines, — 

"  Be  to  her  faults  a  little  blind, 
Be  to  her  virtues  very  kind ; 
Let  all  her  ways  be  unconh'ned, 
And  clap  your  padlock  —  on  her  mind." 

In  his  longer  poems  Prior  was  less  successful.  His  "  Henry  and 
Emma,"  an  amplified  re-cast  of  the  old  ballad  of  "  The  Nut-browne 
Mayde,"  is  admirably  versified,  and  contains  at  least  one  line  which 
is  a  part  of  our  current  sententious  or  proverbial  speech :  — 

"  That  air  and  harmony  of  shape  express, 
Fine  by  degrees  and  beautifully  less;" 

but  most  people  would  prefer  to  its  artificial  strains  the  greater  brev- 
ity, directness,  and  distinctness  of  the  old  ballad.  But  the  immense 
service  which  Dryden  had  rendered  to  English  poetry,  in  imparting  to 
the  heroic  couplet  a  smooth  rapidity,  as  well  as  an  air  of  lofty  au- 
dacity, which  it  had  not  known  before,  is  noticeable  in  all  the  best 
heroics  of  Prior  and  Addison.  "Alma,"  or  "The  Progress  of  the 
Mind,"  in  three  cantos,  is  a  satirical  account,  in  Hudibrastic  verse,  of 
the  vagaries  with  which  the  mind,  at  different  periods  of  life,  and 
acting  through,  or  controlled  by,  different  parts  of  the  animal  econo- 
my, troubles  her  possessor.  There  is  something  cynical,  and  tending 
to  materialism,  in  the  tone  of  this  poem,  which  was  written  towards 
the  close  of  Prior's  life.  His  last  and  most  ambitious  effort  was 
"Solomon,"  a  didactic  poem  in  three  parts.  It  is  a  soliloquy,  and 
represents  the  royal  sage  as  searching  by  turns  through  every  prov- 
ince, and  to  the  utmost  bounds  of  knowledge,  pleasure,  and  power, 
and  finding  in  the  end  that  all  was  "vanity  and  vexation  of  .spirit." 

Of  "  well-natured  Garth,"  author  of  the  mock-heroic 
poem,  "  The  Dispensary,"  the  idea  of  which  he  took 
from  Boileau's  "  Lutrin,"  we  can  only  say  that  he  was 
a  physician,  and  a  stanch  adherent  to  revolution  prin- 
ciples during  the  reign  of  Anne ;  for  which  he  was 
rewarded  with  a  due  share  of  professional  emolument, 
when  his  party  came  into  power  in  1714.  He  was  an 
original  member  of  the  Kit-cat  Club,  "  generally  men- 
tioned as  a  set  of  wits;  in  reality,  the  patriots  that 
saved  Britain."1 

1  Horace  Walpole's  Anecdotes  of  Painting. 


240  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

"  The  Dispensary"  is  about  a  bitter  quarrel  which  broke  out  in  the 
year  1687,  between  the  College  of  Physicians  and  the  apothecaries, 
concerning  the  erection  of  a  dispensary  in  London.  Perhaps  the 
subject  is  somewhat  dull;  granting,  however,  that  the  conception 
was  a  good  one,  the  execution  lags  considerably  behind  it:  as  a 
whole,  the  poem  is  heavy,  and  far  too  long. 

Sir  Richard  Blackmore  was  another  patriotic  poet. 
He  was  the  city  physician,  and  was  knighted  by  King 
William. 

Blackmore  has  met,  chiefly  from  his  own  faults,  with  harder  meas- 
ure than  he  deserves.  The  sarcasms  of  Pope  and  Drydeii  raise  the 
impression  that  Blackmore  can  never  have  written  any  thing  but 
what  was  lumbering,  inane,  and  in  the  worst  possible  taste.  Yet  let 
any  one,  without  prejudice,  take  up  "  The  Creation,"  and  read  a 
couple  of  hundred  lines,  and  he  will  probably  own  that  it  is  a  very 
different  sort  of  poem  from  what  he  had  expected.  It  is  by  no  means 
dull,  or  heavy,  or  soporific:  the  lines  spin  along  with  great  fluency 
and  animation,  though  not  exactly  sparkling  as  they  go.  The  plan  is 
thoroughly  conceived  and  digested,  and  the  argument  ably  and 
lucidly,  if  not  always  cogently,  sustained.  But  Blackmore  was 
ruined,  as  a  literary  man,  by  his  enormous  self-confidence  and  utter 
want  of  measure  or  judgment.  He  attacked,  with  indiscriminating 
fury,  the  atheists,  free-thinkers,  wits,  and  critics  of  his  day,  as  if 
these  names  were  interchangeable;  and  naturally  he  met  with  no 
mercy  from  the  two  last.  The  characters  of  stanch  Whig  and  some- 
what narrow  pietist  are  blended  in  him  in  the  oddest  manner.  His 
lack  of  judgment  is  illustrated  by  his  continuing  to  write  and  publish 
epic  poems  ("Eliza,"  "Alfred,"  "Prince  Arthur,"  &c.),  long  after 
the  world  had  ceased  to  read  them.  Yet  it  would  be  unjust  to  judge 
by  these  of  "The  Creation  "  (1712),  respecting  which  Addison's  eulo- 
gy,1 though  it  gives  all  the  lights  without  the  shadows,  is  not  so 
entirely  extravagant  as  it  seems  at  first  reading. 

Defoe  must  be  named  in  this  connection,  on  account  of  his  once 
famous  satire,  "  The  True-born  Englishman."  His  motive  for  writ- 
ing it  was  the  indignation  which  he  felt  at  what  he  called  English 
ingratitude,  as  showing  itself  in  the  attacks  continually  made  on. 
William  and  his  Dutch  guards  as  foreigners,  and  in  the  peevish,  dis- 
contented air  which  most  Englishmen  wore  after  so  great  a  deliver- 
ance. The  composition  is  of  a  very  coarse  kind;  and  the  satire 
stands  to  those  of  Dry  den  in  about  the  same  relation  as  "  The  Morn- 

i  "The  Spectator,"  No.  339. 


EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  241 

tng  Advertiser,"  the  organ  of  the  publicans,  does  to  "The  Times." 
The  strange  opening  is  well  known :  — 

"  Wherever  God  erects  a  house  of  prayer, 
The  Devil  always  builds  a  chapel  there; 
And  'twill  be  found  upon  examination, 
The  latter  has  the  largest  congregation." 

This  must  be  understood  as  ironical;  for  Defoe  was  himself  a 
Dissenter. 

Thomas  Tickell  resided  for  many  years  at  Oxford,  being  a  fellow 
of  Queen's  College.  Although  a  Whig,  and  an  adherent  of  Addison, 
he  is  the  author  of  some  spasmodic  stanzas,  worthy  of  the  most 
uncompromising  upholder  of  the  divine  right  of  kings,  entitled 
"  Thoughts  occasioned  by  a  Picture  of  the  Trial  of  Charles  I.,"  in 
which  lines  such  as  the  following  occur :  — 

"  Such  boding  thoughts  did  guilty  conscience  dart, 
A  pledge  of  hell  to  dying  Cromwell's  heart." 

Tickell' s  version  of  the  first  book  of  the  Iliad  will  be  noticed  when 
we  come  to  speak  of  the  complete  translation  by  Pope.  Among  his 
other  poems,  which  are  not  numerous,  I  find  only  two  worth  naming, 
—  the  ballad  of  "Colin  and  Lucy,"  and  the  memorial  lines  upon 
Addison.  The  ballad  is  pretty,  but  the  story  improbable.  Colin  hav- 
ing jilted  Lucy,  she  dies  of  a  broken  heart ;  the  coffin  containing  her 
remains  meets  the  marriage  procession ;  the  faithless  Colin  is  struck 
with  remorse,  and  dies  immediately;  they  occupy  the  same  grave. 
Do  not  these  lines  sound  like  an  echo  from  our  nurseries  ?  — • 

"  I  hear  a  voice  you  cannot  hear, 
Which  says  I  must  not  stay ; 
I  see  a  hand  you  cannot  see, 
Which  beckons  me  away." 

The  unhappy  history  of  Richard  Savage  has  been  detailed  at 
length  by  Dr.  Johnson,  in  one  of  the  longest  and  most  masterly  of 
his  poetical  biographies.1  His  life  and  character  were  blighted  by 
the  circumstances  of  his  birth  and  rearing.  To  these  he  refers  only 
too  plainly  and  pointedly  in  his  poem  of  "  The  Bastard,"  a  very 
forcible  piece  of  writing,  containing  a  line  often  quoted :  — 

"  He  lives  to  build,  not  boast,  a  generous  race; 
No  tenth  transmitter  of  a  foolish  face." 

1  Lives  of  the  Poets. 
21 


242  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITER  AT  UKE. 

His  principal  work  was  "  The  Wanderer,"  a  moral  or  didactic  poem 
in  five  cantos  (1729),  containing  many  materials  and  rudiments  of 
thought,  half  worked  up  as  it  were,  which  one  recognizes  again  trans- 
formed after  passing  through  the  fiery  crucible  of  a  great  mind,  in 
Pope's  "  Essay  on  Man."  Savage,  like  most  of  the  English  poets  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  employed  the  heroic  metre  for  the  majority 
of  his  compositions,  dazzled  by  the  glory  and  success  with  which  Dry- 
den  and  Pope  had  employed  it. 

John  Dyer,  who  after  failing  as  a  painter  became  a  clergyman  late 
in  life,  is,  or  was,  known  as  the  author  of  "  Grongar  Hill  "  (1727)  and 
"The  Fleece"  (1757).  The  latter  is  in  blank  verse,  and  totally 
worthless ;  the  former,  however,  is  a  pretty  poem  of  description  and 
reflection,  breathing  that  intoxicating  sense  of  natural  beauty  which 
never  fails  to  awaken  in  us  some  sympathy,  and  an  answering  feeling 
of  reality.  These  lines  may  serve  as  a  specimen :  — 

"  Ever  charming,  ever  new, 
When  will  the  landscape  tire  the  view?  — 
The  fountain's  fall,  the  river's  flow, 
The  woody  valleys  warm  and  low, 
The  windy  summit,  wild  and  high, 
Roughly  rushing  on  the  sky ; 
The  pleasant  seat,  the  ruined  tower, 
The  naked  rock,  the  shady  bower, 
The  town  and  village,  dome  and  farm, 
Each  give  each  a  double  charm, 
As  pearls  upon  an  Ethiop's  arm. 

Ambrose  Philips,  a  Cambridge  man  and  a  zealous  Whig,  became  a 
hack  writer  in  London.  His  "Six  Pastorals"  are  rubbish;  neverthe- 
less they  were  dogmatically  praised,  probably  on  party  grounds,  by 
Steele  in  "  The  Guardian."  This  was  in  the  year  1713.  Pope,  who 
some  years  before  had  published  pastorals  that  were  really  worth 
something,  but  had  attracted  scarcely  any  notice,  in  a  later  "  Guardi- 
an," No.  40,  ironically  continued  in  the  same  tone,  but  by  instituting 
a  regular  comparison  between  his  own  pastorals  and  those  of  Philips 
exposed  effectually  the  silliness  and  emptiness  of  the  latter.  Philips, 
when  he  had  discovered  the  cheat,  was  exceedingly  angry,  and  is 
said  to  have  hung  up  a  rod  at  Button's  (the  club  frequented  by  Addi- 
son),  with  which  he  threatened  to  chastise  Pope.  Thereby  he  but 
increased  his  punishment ;  for  Pope  not  only  got  Gay  to  write  the 
burlesque  mentioned  above,  in  ridicule  of  the  "  Six  Pastorals,"  but 
affixed  to  his  enemy  the  nickname  of  "Namby-pamby  Philips," 
Which  is  too  just  and  appropriate  ever  to  be  forgotten  while  Philip' 
himself  is  remembered. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  243 

John  Philips  wrote  "  The  Splendid  Shilling,"  a  mock-heroic  poem 
in  blank  verse,  in  which  the  design  of  parodying  the  "  Paradise 
Lost"  is  apparent.  "  Cider"  and  "Blenheim"  are  also  in  blank 
verse,  a  preference  due  to  the  author's  serious  admiration  of  the 
English  epic.  In  fact,  he  seems  to  have  been  the  earliest  genuine 
literary  admirer  of  Milton. 

Isaac  Watts,  educated  as  a  Dissenter,  was  employed  for  some  years 
as  an  Independent  minister;  but  his  health  failed,  and  he  was  received 
into  the  house  of  a  generous  friend,  Sir  Thomas  Abney  of  Stoke 
Newington,  where  he  spent  the  last  thirty-six  years  of  his  life.  He  is 
the  author  of  three  books  of  "Lyric  Poems  "  or  "Horse  Lyricse," 
mostly  of  a  devotional  and  serious  cast,  though  the  friend  of  the  Rev- 
olution and  Hanoverian  succession  comes  out  strongly  here  and  there, 
and  of  "Divine  Songs"  for  children.  His  "Hymns  and  Spiritual 
Songs"  are  the  well-known  "  Watts' s  Hymns." 

Allan  Ramsay,  of  Scotch  extraction  on  his  father's,  of  English  on 
his  mother's  side,  settled  in  Edinburgh  as  a  wig-maker  about  the  year 
1710.  He  joined  a  society  of  wits  and  literary  dilettanti,  called  the 
Easy  Club ;  and  many  of  his  poems  were  composed  to  enliven  their 
social  gatherings.  The  work  on  which  his  reputation  rests,  "  The 
Gentle  Shepherd,"  is  a  story  of  real  country  life  in  Scotland,  in  the 
form  of  a  rhyming  pastoral  drama.  The  dialect  is  the  Lowland 
Scotch,  and  the  sentiments  natural  and  suitable  to  the  persons  repre- 
sented; the  story  is  clearly  told,  and  pleasing  in  itself:  in  short,  there 
is  nothing  to  find  fault  with  in  the  poem ;  the  only  thing  wanting  is 
that  life-giving  touch  of  genius,  which,  present  alike  in  the  artificial 
pastorals  of  Pope  and  the  artless  songs  of  Burns,  forbids  true  poetry 
to  die. 

The  Drama,  1700-1745 :  Addison,  Rowe,  Thomson,  Young-, 
Southern,  Steele.  —  Prose  Comedy:  Farquhar,  Vanbrugh,  Gib- 
ber, Centlivre,  "  The  Beggars'  Opera." 

Since  the  appearance  of  Congreve's  "  Mourning 
Bride,"  a  tragedy  of  the  old  school,  no  tragic  work  had 
been  produced,  deserving  of  mention,  up  to  the  year 
1713.  By  that  time  the  classic  drama  of  France,  the 
masterpieces  of  Corneille  and  Racine,  had  become 
thoroughly  known  and  appreciated  in  England  ;  and,  in 
the  absence  of  any  native  writers  of  great  original 
power,  it  was  natural  that  our  dramatists,  both  in  tra- 
gedy and  comedy,  should  model  their  plays  upon  the 
French  pattern.  This  is  the  case  with  Addison's  cele- 


244  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

brated  tragedy  of  "  Cato." l  It  was  conceived  and 
partly  written,  according  to  Gibber,2  in  the  year  1703  ; 
but  Addison  had  laid  it  aside,  and  only  brought  it  on 
the  stage  in  1713,  at  the  urgent  request  of  his  political 
associates.  "  Cato  "  is  in  form  a  strictly  classic  play ; 
the  unities  are  observed,  and  all  admixture  of  comic 
matter  is  avoided,  as  carefully  as  in  any  play  of  Racine's. 
The  brilliant  prologue  was  written  by  Pope.  The  play 
met  with  signal  success,  because  it  was  applauded  by 
both  political  parties  ;  the  Whigs  cheering  the  frequent 
allusions  to  liberty  and  patriotism,  the  Tories  echoing 
back  the  cheers,  because  they  did  not  choose  to  be 
thought  more  friendly  to  tyranny  than  their  opponents. 
Rowe  produced  several  tolerable  tragedies,  one  of 
which,  "  The  Fair  Penitent,"  is  a  re-cast  of  Massinger's 
"  Fatal  Dowry."  His  "  Jane  Shore  "  is  an  attempt  to 
write  a  tragedy  in  the  manner  of  Shakspeare.  Thom- 
son, the  author  of  "  The  Seasons,"  wrote  the  tragedy  of 
"  Sophonisba,"  3  in  the  style  of  "  Cato."  The  success 
of  this  play  is  said  to  have  been  marred  by  a  ridiculous 
circumstance.  There  is  an  absurdly  flat  line,  — 

"  O  Sophonisba !    Sophonisba,  O ! " 
at  the  recital  of  which,  a  wag  in  the  pit  called  out,  — 

"  O  Jemmy  Thomson !    Jemmy  Thomson,  O ! " 

The  parody  was  for  some  days  in  every  one's  mouth, 
and  made  the  continued  representation  of  the  play 
impossible.  Young,  the  author  of  the  "  Night 
Thoughts,"  wrote  several  tragedies,  among  which 
"  Revenge,"  produced  in  1721,  still  keeps  possession  of 
the  stage. 

1  See  p.  366.  2  Gibber's  Apology. 

3  Thomson  also  wrote  the  tragedies  of  Agamemnon  (1738),  and 
Tancred  and  Sigismunda  (1745). 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTUKY.  245 

Southern,  an  Irishman,  produced,  near  the  beginning  of  his  long 
career,  two  tragedies,  "  The  Fatal  Secret,"  and  "Oroonoko"  (1692), 
which  for  many  years  held  their  place  on  the  stage.  He  was  notorious 
for  his  adroitness  in  dealing  with  managers  and  booksellers ;  whence 
he  is  addressed  by  Pope  as,  — 

"  Tom,  whom  Heaven  sent  down  to  raise 
The  price  of  prologues  and  of  plays." 

He  is  praised  by  Hallam  for  having  been  the  first  English  writer 
to  speak  with  abhorrence,  in  his  "  Oroonoko,"  of  the  slave-trade. 
However,  neither  the  thoughts  nor  the  style  of  his  tragedies  rise 
above  the  commonplace. 

Steele's  comedies  of  "The  Tender  Husband,"  and  "The  Con- 
scious Lovers"  (1772),  produced  at  a  long  interval  of  time,  achieved 
a  marked  success. 

"  The  Comedy  of  Manners,"  in  prose,  of  which  the 
first  suggestion  clearly  came  from  the  admirable  works 
of  Moliere,  had  been  successfully  tried,  as  we  have 
seen,  by  Etherege,  Wycherley,  and  Congreve,  in  the 
preceding  period.  To  the  same  school  of  writers  be- 
longed, in  this  period,  Farquhar,  Vanbrugh,  and  Gibber. 
Farquhar,  a  native  of  Londonderry,  is  the  author  of 
"  The  Constant  Couple,"  "  Sir  Harry  Wildair,"  and 
"The  Beaux'  Stratagem;"  the  latter  written  on  the 
bed  of  sickness  to  which  neglect  and  want  had  brought 
him,  and  from  which  he  sank  into  an  untimely  grave, 
in  his  thirtieth  year.  Sir  John  Vanbrugh  wrote  the 
famous  comedies  of  "  The  Provoked  Wife,"  and  "  The 
Provoked  Husband,"  the  latter  being  left  unfinished 
at  his  death,  arid  completed  by  Gibber.  Colley  Gibber, 
a  German  by  extraction,  was  not  only  a  dramatist,  but 
an  actor  and  theatrical  manager.  He  has  left  us,  in 
the  Apology  for  his  own  Life,  published  in  1740,  an 
amusing  account  of  his  own  bustling,  frivolous  life,  as 
well  as  of  the  state  of  the  stage  from  the  Restoration 
down  to  his  own  time,  adding  lifelike  sketches  of  the 
principal  actors  and  actresses.  Mrs.  Centlivre  produced 
21* 


246  HISTOKY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

a  number  of  comedies  l  in  the  same  period,  which  com- 
manded a  temporary  popularity. 

In  the  work  of  Gibber,  just  mentioned,  there  is  a 
complaint  that  the  Continental  taste  for  opera  had 
lately  extended  to  England,  to  the  detriment  of  the 
legitimate  drama.  Gay's  "  Beggars'  Opera "  was  a 
clever  attempt  to  gratify  this  taste  by  an  operatic  pro- 
duction truly  British  in  every  sense.  The  subject  is 
the  unhappy  loves  of  Capt.  Macheath,  the  chief  of  a 
gang  of  highwaymen,  and  Polly  Peachum,  the  daughter 
of  a  worthy  who  combines  the  functions  of  thief-taker 
and  receiver  of  stolen  goods.  The  attractiveness  of 
the  piece  was  greatly  enhanced  by  the  introduction  of 
a  number  of  beautiful  popular  airs;  indeed,  but  for 
these,  the  coarseness  of  the  plot  and  the  grossness  of 
much  of  the  language  would  have  ere  now  condemned 
it,  in  spite  of  all  its  wit  and  drollery.  There  is  no 
recitative,  as  in  a  modern  opera :  its  place  is  supplied 
by  colloquial  prose.  The  opera  was  first  produced, 
with  enormous  applause,  in  1727. 

Learning,  1700-1745  ;   Bentley,  Lardner. 

The  greatest  of  English  scholars  flourished  at  the 
same  time  with  Pope  and  Swift,  and  fell  under  the 
satire  of  both.  Richard  Bentley  was  a  native  of  York- 
shire, and  received  his  education  at  Cambridge,  where 
he  rose  to  be  master  of  Trinity  College  in  1700.  The 
famous  controversy  between  him  and  Boyle,  on  the 
"  Epistles  of  Phalaris,"  occurred  in  the  last  years  of 
the  seventeenth  century ;  but  we  delayed  to  notice  it 
until  we  could  present  a  general  view  of  Bentley's 
literary  career.  The  dispute  arose  in  this  way:  Sir 

1  The  best  of  these  (and  a  truly  excellent  comedy  it  is),  is  A  Bold 
Stroke  for  a  Wife.  As  an  acting  play,  The  Busey  Body  has  also  great 
merit. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  247 

William  Temple,  taking  up  the  discussion  which  had 
been  carried  on  between  Boileau  and  Perrault  on  the 
comparative  merits  of  ancient  and  modern  authors, 
sided  with  Boileau  against  the  moderns,  and,  amongst 
other  things,  adduced  the  Epistles  of  Philaris  (which 
he  supposed  to  be  the  genuine  production  of  the  tyrant 
of  Agrigentum,  who  roasted  Perillus  in  a  brazen  bull) 
as  an  instance  of  a  work  which  in  its  kind  was  unap- 
proached  by  any  modern  writer.  Dr.  Aldrich,  author 
of  the  well-known  Treatise  on  Logic,  who  was  then 
dean  of  Christ  Church,  was  induced  by  Temple's  praise 
to  determine  upon  preparing  a  new  edition  of  the  Epis- 
tles for  the  press.  He  committed  this  task  to  young 
Charles  Boyle,  great-nephew  of  the  celebrated  natural 
philosopher  Robert  Boyle.  A  manuscript  in  the  king's 
library,  of  which  Bentley  was  then  librarian,  had  to  be 
consulted.  Bentley,  though  he  lent  the  manuscript,  is 
said  to  have  behaved  ungraciously  in  the  matter,  and  re- 
fused sufficient  time  for  its  collation.  In  the  preface  to 
his  edition  of  the  Epistles,  which  appeared  in  1695, 
Boyle  complained  of  the  alleged  discourtesy.  Bentley 
then  examined  the  Epistles  carefully ;  and  the  result 
was,  that  when  Wotton,  in  reply  to  Temple,  published 
his  "  Reflections  on  Ancient  and  Modern  Learning,"  a 
dissertation  was  appended  to  the  work,  in  which  Bent- 
ley  demonstrated  that  the  Epistles  could  not  possibly 
be  the  work  of  Philaris,  but  were  the  forgery  of  a  later 
age.  In  proving  his  point,  he  was  lavish  of  the  super- 
cilious and  contemptuous  language  to  which  his  arro- 
gant temper  naturally  impelled  him.  Nettled  at  this 
sharp  attack,  the  Oxford  scholars  clubbed  their  wits 
and  their  learning  together.  Atterbury,  Smallridge, 
and  Friend  had  each  a  hand  in  the  composition  of  the 
reply,  which,  published  still  under  the  name  of  Boyle, 
was  expected  to  establish  Philaris  in  the  authorship  of 


248  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

the  Epistles,  and  to  cover  Bentley  with  confusion.  For 
a  long  time  the  great  critic  was  silent ;  he  was  sup- 
posed to  be  vanquished,  and  to  feel  that  he  was  so. 
But  in  1699  appeared  "  The  Dissertation  on  the  Epis- 
tles of  Philaris,"  the  finest  piece  of  erudite  criticism 
that  has  ever  proceeded  from  an  English  pen.  By  an 
analysis  of  the  language  of  the  Epistles,  Bentley  proved 
that  they  were  written  not  in  Sicilian,  but  in  Attic, 
Greek,  and  that  of  a  period  many  centuries  later  than 
the  age  of  Philaris;  while,  by  bringing  to  bear  his 
intimate  knowledge  of  the  whole  range  of  Greek  litera- 
ture upon  various  topographical  and  historical  state- 
ments which  they  contained,  he  demonstrated  that 
towns  were  named  which  were  not  built,  and  events 
alluded  to  which  had  not  occurred,  in  the  lifetime  of 
their  reputed  author.  The  controversy  was  now  at  an 
end :  his  opponents  promised  a  reply,  but  it  was  never 
forthcoming. 

Bentley,  however,  with  all  his  wit  and  penetration,  was 
without  that  realizing  power  of  imagination  which  the 
greatest  German  critics  of  our  days,  such  as  the  brothers 
Grimm,  have  united  to  the  former  qualities :  he  was  an 
acute  but  not  a  genial  critic.  His  edition  of  the  "  Para- 
dise Lost,"  published  in  1732,  is  an  astonishing  produc- 
tion. Pope's  lines  upon  it  in  the  "  Dunciad,"  — 

"  Not  that  I'd  tear  all  beauties  from  his  book, 
Like  slashing  Bentley,  with  his  desperate  hook,"  — 

are  not  too  severe.  Among  his  other  works  are  editions 
of  Horace  and  Terence,  to  the  latter  of  which  is  pre- 
fixed a  valuable  dissertation  on  the  Terentian  metres. 

Nathaniel  Lardner,  a  dissenting  divine,  publisheds 
between  1730  and  1757,  a  bulky  work,  the  fruit  of  great 
learning  and  painstaking  research,  entitled  "  The  Credi- 
bility of  the  Gospel  History."  Lardner  was  himself  a~\ 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  249 

Arian ;  but  his  book  furnished  Paley  afterwards  with  the 
materials  •  for  his  popular  "  View  of  the  Evidences  of 
Christianity." 

Prose     Fiction,    Oratory,    Pamphlets,    Miscellanies,    1700-1745 : 
Swift,  Defoe,  Steele,  Addison. 

Under  the  first  head,  we  have  Swift's  satirical  romance 
(first  published  anonymously  in  1626),  "  The  Travels 
of  Lemuel  Gulliver,"  including  the  voyages  to  Liliput, 
Brobdignag,  Laputa,  and  the  country  of  the  Hou- 
yhnhnms.  The  first  sketch  of  the  work  occurs  in  "  Mar- 
tinus  Scriblerus,"  the  joint  production  of  Pope,  Swift, 
and  Arbuthnot.  But  Swift  soon  took  the  sole  execution 
of  the  idea  into  his  own  hands ;  and  renouncing  personal 
satire,  to  which  Pope  was  so  much  addicted,  made  this 
extraordinary  work  the  vehicle  for  his  generalizing  con- 
tempt and  hatred  of  mankind.  This  tone  of  mind,  as 
Scott  observes,  gains  upon  the  author  as  he  proceeds, 
until,  in  the  Voyage  to  the  Houyhnhnms,  he  can  only 
depict  his  fellow-men  under  the  degrading  and  disgust- 
ing lineaments  of  the  Yahoos.  "  The  True  History  of 
Lucian  and  Rabelais'  Voyage  of  Pantagruel  "  furnished 
Swift  with  a  few  suggestions ;  but,  in  the  main,  this  is 
a  purely  original  work. 

Internal  peace  and  security  prolonged  through  many 
years,  while  enormously  augmenting  the  national  wealth, 
occasioned  the  rise,  about  the  middle  of  the  present 
period,  of  that  large  class  of  readers  to  whom  so  much 
of  modern  literature  is  addressed,  —  persons  having  leis- 
ure to  read,  and  money  to  buy  books,  but  who  demand 
from  literature  rather  amusement  than  instruction,  and 
care  less  for  being  excited  to  think  than  for  being  made 
to  enjoy.  The  stage,  especially  after  Jeremy  Collier's 
attacks  upon  it,  became  ever  less  competent  to  satisfy 
the  wants  of  this  class,  or  gratify  this  new  kind  of  intel- 


250  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

lectual  appetite.  The  periodical  miscellany,  the  rise  of 
which  will  be  described  presently,  was  the  first  kind  of 
provision  made  for  this  purpose.  When  Addison  and 
his  numerous  imitators  had  written  themselves  out,  and 
the  style  had  become  tiresome,  a  new  and  more  perma- 
nent provision  arose  in  the  modern  novel.  The  first  of 
the  English  novelists  was  Daniel  Defoe,  born  in  1661. 
After  a  long  and  busy  career  as  a  political  writer,  he 
was  verging  on  his  sixtieth  year,  when,  as  a  sort  of 
relaxation  from  his  serious  labors,  he  tried  his  hand  at 
prose  fiction.  "  The  Life  and  Adventures  of  Robinson 
Crusoe,"  founded  on  the  true  story  of  Alexander  Selkirk, 
a  sailor  cast  by  a  shipwreck  on  the  uninhabited  island 
of  Juan  Fernandez,  appeared  in  1719.  It  was  followed 
by  "  Religious  Courtship,"  "  The  History  of  Colonel 
Jack,"  "  Memoirs  of  a  Cavalier,"  "  Moll  Flanders," 
"  Captain  Singleton,"  and  several  others.  It  was  Defoe's 
humor  to  throw  the  utmost  possible  air  of  reality  over 
every  one  of  his  fictions,  so  as  to  palm  it  off  on  the 
reader  as  a  narrative  of  facts.  Thus  the  famous  phy- 
sician Dr.  Mead  is  said  to  have  been  taken  in  by  the 
pretended  "  Journal  of  the  Great  Plague,"  and  Lord 
Chatham  to  have  recommended  "  The  Memoirs  of  a 
Cavalier  "  as  the  best  authentic  account  of  the  civil  war. 
No  oratory  worthy  of  notice  dates  from  this  period. 
On  the  other  hand,  pamphleteers  and  political  satirists 
abounded.  On  the  Whig  side,  Defoe  wrote  an  ironical 
pamphlet,  "The  Shortest  Way  with  the  Dissenters" 
(1702),  which  the  House  of  Commons,  then  running 
over  with  Tory  and  High  Church  feeling,  voted  scanda- 
lous and  seditious.  He  was  fined,  pilloried,  and  im- 
prisoned. From  the  same  cause  several  of  his  other 
political  writings  were  at  the  time  considered  libellous, 
and  exposed  him  to  persecution ;  to  escape  which,  he, 
late  in  life,  renounced  political  discussion,  and  indemni- 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  251 

fied  himself  for  being  debarred  from  describing  the  busy 
world  of  fact  by  creating  a  new  world,  in  semblance 
hardly  less  real,  out  of  his  own  prolific  fancy.  On  the 
Tory  side,  more  powerful  pens  were  engaged.  No 
pamphlet  ever  produced  a  greater  immediate  effect  than 
Swift's  "  Conduct  of  the  Allies,"  written  in  1712,  in 
order  to  persuade  the  nation  to  a  peace.  "  It  is  boasted, 
that  between  November  and  January  eleven  thousand 
were  sold ;  a  great  number  at  that  time,  when  we  were 
not  yet  a  nation  of  readers.  To  its  propagation,  cer- 
tainly, no  agency  of  power  or  influence  was  warrting.  It 
furnished  arguments  for  conversation,  speeches  for  de- 
bate, and  materials  for  parliamentary  resolutions." 1 
This  was  followed  by  "  Reflections  on  the  Barrier 
Treaty,"  published  later  in  the  same  year,  and  "  The 
Public  Spirit  of  the  Whigs,"  written  in  answer  to 
Steele's  "  Crisis,"  in.  1714.  "  The  Examiner  "  (succeed- 
ing Addison's  feebler  organ,  "  The  Whig  Examiner  ") 
was  commenced  by  Swift  soon  after  his  introduction  to 
Harley,  in  October,  1710,  and  continued  till  about  the 
middle  of  the  next  year.  In  all  these  productions, 
Swift,  who  had  commenced  life  as  a  Whig,  writes  with 
the  usual  rancor  of  a  political  renegade.  Differently 
aimed,  but  equally  effective,  were  the  famous  "  Drapier's 
Letters."  The  following  were  the  circumstances  which 
gave  occasion  to  them  :  — 

Since  the  Treaty  of  Limerick  in  1691,  Ireland  had 
been  treated  in  many  respects  as  a  conquered  country. 
This  was  indeed  unreservedly  and  openly  the  case,  so 
far  as  the  Roman  Catholic  population  were  concerned  ; 
but  the  Irish  Protestants  also  were  compelled  to  share 
in  the  national  humiliation.  When  some  enterprising 
men  had  established,  about  the  year  1700,  an  Irish 
woollen  manufacture,  the  commercial  jealousies  of  Eng- 

i  Johnson's  Life  of  Swift. 


252  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

land  were  aroused ;  and  an  act  was  passed,  which,  by 
prohibiting  the  exportation  of  Irish  woollens  to  any 
other  country  but  England,  destroyed  the  rising  indus- 
try. This  was  but  one  out  of  a  number  of  oppressive 
acts  under  which  Irishmen  chafed,  but  in  vain.  Swift's 
haughty  temper  rose  against  the  indignities  offered  to 
his  country ;  and  he  only  waited  for  an  opportunity  to 
strike  a  blow.  That  opportunity  was  given  by  the  pro- 
ceedings connected  with  Wood's  contract  for  supplying 
a  copper  coinage,  to  circulate  only  in  Ireland.  Com- 
mercially speaking,  it  was  ultimately  proved  that  the 
new  coinage  was  calculated  to  benefit  Ireland,  not  to 
injure  her.  The  coins  were  assayed  at  the  mint,  under 
the  superintendence  of  no  less  a  person  than  Sir  Isaac 
Newton,  and  proved  to  be  of  the  proper  weight  and 
fineness.  But  the  way  in  which  the  thing  was  done 
was,  and  deservedly,  the  cause  of  offence.  The  privi- 
lege of  coining  money,  which  had  always  been  con- 
sidered to  appertain  to  the  royal  prerogative,  was  in 
this  instance,  without  the  consent  or  even  knowledge 
of  the  lord  lieutenant  or  the  Irish  privy  council,  dele- 
gated to  an  obscure  Englishman,  who  had  obtained  the 
preference  over  other  competitors  by  paying  court  to  the 
king's  mistress.  It  was  this  heaping  of  insult  upon 
injury  which  excited  the  ferment  in  the  Irish  mind,  of 
which  the  memorable  Drapier  availed  himself.  The 
first  letter  appeared  some  time  in  the  year  1724.  In  it 
and  the  two  following  letters  Swift  artfully  confined 
himself  to  those  objections  and  accusations  which  were 
open  to  the  perceptions  of  all  classes  of  the  people.  He 
declared  that  the  new  coins  were  of  base  metal ;  he 
pulled  Wood's  character  to  pieces  ;  he  asserted  that  the 
inevitable  consequence  of  the  introduction  of  the  new 
coinage  would  be  the  disappearance  of  all  the  gold  and 
silver  from  Ireland.  Such  charges  as  these  came  home 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  253 

to  the  feelings  and  understanding  of  the  lowest  and 
most  ignorant  of  his  readers ;  and  the  excitement  which 
they  caused  was  tremendous.  In  the  fourth  and  follow- 
ing letters  Swift  followed  up  the  attack  by  opening  up 
the  general  question  of  the  wrongs  and  humiliations 
which  Ireland  had  to  suffer  from  England.  A  proclama- 
tion was  vainly  issued  by  the  Irish  Government,  offering 
a  reward  of  three  hundred  pounds  to  any  one  who 
would  disclose  the  author  of  the  Drapier's  fourth  letter. 
The  danger  was  great,  but  Sir  Robert  Walpole  was 
equal  to  the  occasion.  He  first  tried  a  compromise,  but 
without  success,  and  then  wisely  cancelled  the  obnox- 
ious contract.  From  this  period  to  his  death,  Swift  was 
the  idol  of  the  Irish  people.  He  said  once  to  a  Protes- 
tant dignitary,  in  the  course  of  an  altercation,  "  If  I  were 
but  to  hold  up  my  little  finger,  the  mob  would  tear  you 
to  pieces." 

Arbuthnot,  the  joint  author,  with  Pope  and  Swift, 
of  "  Martinus  Scriblerus,"  of  whom  Swift  exclaimed, 
"  Oh,  if  the  world  had  a  dozen  Arbuthnots,  I  would 
burn  my  [Gulliver's]  Travels ! "  wrote,  about  the 
year  1709,  the  telling  political  satire  named  "  The 
History  of  John  Bull,"  levelled  against  the  Godolphin 
ministry. 

The  great  war  in  which  Europe  was  involved  was  represented  by 
a  lawsuit  carried  on  by  John  Bull  against  my  Lord  Strutt  (the  King 
of  Spain):  Nicholas  Frog  and  Esquire  South  (the  Dutch  republic  and 
the  emperor)  being  parties  to  the  suit  on  the  one  side,  — John  paying 
their  expenses;  and  Lewis  Baboon  (the  King  of  France)  on  the  other. 
John  Bull's  attorney,  Humphrey  Hocus  (Duke  of  Marl  bo  rough),  con- 
trives so  to  manage  his  suit  for  him  as  to  plunge  him  in  a  bottomless 
gulf  of  expense.  Addison  replied  with  "  The  Late  Trial  and  Convic- 
tion of  Count  Tariff"  (1713),  an  attack  on  the  Tory  ministry  for  sub- 
mitting to  disadvantageous  terms  at  the  peace  of  Utrecht.  But  the 
humor  here  is  not  so  broad  and  hearty  as  in  "  The  History  of  John 
Bull,'-'  which  yet  evidently  served  it  for  a  model. 
22 


254  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

From  this  period  dates  the  rise  of  the  periodical  mis- 
cellany.1 To  Richard  Steele,  an  Irishman,  who  was 
employed  by  the  Whig  Government  to  write  "  The 
Gazette  "  during  the  Spanish  succession  war,  the  nature 
of  his  employment  suggested  the  design  of  "  The  Tat- 
ler,"  a  tri-weekly  sheet,  giving  the  latest  items  of  news, 
and  following  them  up  with  a  tale  or  essay.  To  this 
periodical  Addison  soon  began  to  contribute  papers,  arid 
continued  to  write  for  it  nearly  to  the  end.  The  first 
number  appeared  on  the  22d  April,  1709,  the  last  on  the 
2d  January,  1711.  The  success  of  "  The  Tatler  "  being 
decisive,  it  was  followed  up  by  "  The  Spectator " 
(1711-12),  the  plan  of  which,  "  as  far  as  it  regards  the 
feigned  person  of  the  author  and  of  the  several  persons 
who  compose  his  club,  was  projected  "  by  Addison,  "  in 
concert  with  Sir  Richard  Steele."2  In  the  first  num- 
ber, which  was  from  the  pen  of  Addison,  the  imaginary 
projector  of  the  undertaking  gives  a  portrait  of  himself 
that  is  full  of  strokes  of  delicate  humor;  how  from 
childhood  he  had  "  distinguished  himself  by  a  most  pro- 
found silence,"  and  in  mature  age  lived  in  the  world 
"  rather  as  a  spectator  of  mankind  than  as  one  of  the 
species."  He  announces  his  intention  of  publishing 
"  a  sheet  full  of  thoughts  "  every  morning,  repudiates 
political  aims,  declares  that  he  will  preserve  a  tone  and 
character  of  rigid  impartiality,  invites  epistolary  assist- 
ance from  the  public,  and  requests  that  letters  may  be 
addressed  to  "  The  Spectator  "  at  "  Mr.  Buckley's  in 
Little  Britain."  No.  2,  by  Steele,  contains  sketches  of 
the  different  persons  composing  "  The  Spectator's " 

1  Usually,  but  not  very  correctly,  called  the  periodical  essay;  a 
word  which  can  hardly  be  stretched  so  as  to  include  the  allegories, 
sketches  of  manners  and  characters,  tales,  gossiping  letters,  &c.,  with 
which  the  Tatler  and  Spectator  abound. 

2  See  the  preface  to  Addison' s  works,  by  TickelL 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  255 

club  (literature  supposed  itself  hardly  able  to  hold  its 
ground  in  those  days  without  its  clubs),  —  the  fine  old 
country  gentleman,  Sir  Roger  de  Coverly ;  the  retired 
merchant,  Sir  Andrew  Freeport ;  Capt.  Sentry,  the  old 
soldier ;  Will  Honeycomb,  the  beau  ;  besides  a  stage- 
bitten  barrister,  and  a  clergyman.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  Addison  believed  himself  to  be  engaged  in  an 
important  work,  tending  to  humanize  and  elevate  his 
countrymen.  "  It  was  said  of  Socrates  that  he  brought 
philosophy  down  from  heaven  to  inhabit  among  men; 
and  I  should  be  ambitious  to  have  it  said  of  me,  that  I 
have  brought  philosophy  out  of  closets  and  libraries, 
schools  and  colleges,  to  dwell  in  clubs  and  assemblies, 
at  tea-tables  and  in  coffee-houses."  1 

By  turning  to  fresh  intellectual  fields  the  minds  of 
the  upper  classes,  —  the  people  in  good  society,  —  to 
whom  the  theatre  was  now  a  forbidden  or  despised 
excitement,  Addison  did  without  doubt  allay  much 
restlessness,  still,  or  amuse  many  feverish  longings. 
The  millennium,  it  seemed,  was  not  to  come  yet  a  while  ; 
the  fifth  monarchy  was  not  to  be  yet  established :  no, 
nor  was  the  world  to  become  a  great  Armida's  garden 
of  pleasure  and  jollity ;  nor  did  blind  loyalty  to  the  true 
prince  commend  itself  now  even  to  the  heart,  much  less 
to  the  reason.  Robbed  of  its  ideals,  disenchanted,  and 
in  heavy  cheer,  the  English  mind,  though  not  profoundly 
interested,  read  these  pleasant  chatty  discoursings  about 
things  in  general,  and  allowed  itself  to  be  amused,  and 
half  forgot  its  spiritual  perplexities.  Nothing  was 
settled  by  these  papers,  nothing  really  probed  to  the 
bottom  ;  but  they  taught,  with  much  light  grace  and 
humor,  lessons  of  good  sense,  tolerance,  and  moderation ; 
and  their  popularity  proved  that  the  lesson  was  relished. 

"The  Spectator" extended  to  635  numbers,  including 

1  Spectator,  No.  10. 


256  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

the  eighty  of  the  resumed  issue  in  1714.  Upon  its 
suspension  in  December,  1712,  "  The  Guardian  "  took 
its  place.  "  Of  the  271  papers  in  4  The  Tatler,'  Steele 
wrote  188,  Addison  42,  and  both  conjointly  36.  Of 
635  4  Spectators,'  Addison  wrote  274,  Steele  240 ;  and, 
of  175  4  Guardians,'  Steele  wrote  82,  and  Addison 
53."  l  Several  "  Tatlers  "  were  contributed  by  Swift, 
and  a  few  "  Guardians  "  by  Pope. 

Among  the  subjects  treated  of  in  "  The  Spectator " 
are  the  following :  masquerades,  clubs,  operas,  vulgar 
superstitions,  ghosts,  devotees,  the  shortness  of  life  (in 
the  famous  "  Vision  of  Mirzah,"  No.  159),  and  the  poet- 
ical merits  of  Milton's  "  Paradise  Lost,"  in  an  elaborate 
criticism,  extending  over  seventeen  numbers,  written  by 
Addison. 

At  the  end  of  1715,  Addison  commenced  writing  "  The 
Freeholder,"  at  the  rate  of  two  papers  a  week,  and 
continued  it  till  the  middle  of  the  next  year.  "  This 
was  undertaken  in  the  defence  of  the  established  gov- 
ernment ;  sometimes  with  argument,  sometimes  with 
mirth.  In  argument  he  had  many  equals  ;  but  his  humor 
was  singular  arid  matchless.  Bigotry  itself  must  be 
delighted  with  the  Tory  fox-hunter."  2 

The  daily  miscellany  passed  by  insensible  degrees 
into  inferior  hands,  and  at  last  became  insufferably  dull. 
From  the  nature  of  the  case,  intellectual  gifts  are 
required  to  recommend  this  style,  with  which  the  novel 
can  dispense.  There  are  ten  persons  who  can  write  a 
tale  which  people  will  read,  for  one  who  can  compose 
a  passable  criticism,  or  a  jeu  cF esprit,  or  seize  the  fugi- 
tive traits  of  some  popular  habit,  vice,  or  caprice.  Even 
the  importation  of  politics,  as  in  "  The  Freeholder," 
failed  to  give  a  permanent  animation.  So,  after  the 
town  had  been  deluged  for  some  time  with  small  witti 

1  Chambers'  English  Literature,  i.  620.  2  Johnson. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  257 

cisms  and  criticisms  that  had  no  point  or  sap  in  them, 
the  style  was  agreed  on  all  hands  to  be  a  nuisance,  and 
was  discontinued.  Some  years  later  it  was  revived  by 
Dr.  Johnson,  as  we  shall  see. 

Works  of  Satire  and  Humor :  Swift. 

It  will  be  remembered  l  that  Swift's  patron,  Sir  Wil- 
liam Temple,  took  a  leading  part  in  the  discussion  upon 
the  relative  merits  of  ancient  and  modern  authors. 
Swift  himself  struck  in  on  the  same  side,  in  the 
brilliant  satire  of  "  The  Battle  of  the  Books," 2  which 
was  written  in  1697,  but  not  published  till  1704.  In 
this  controversy  the  great  wits,  both  in  France  and 
England,  were  all  of  one  mind  in  claiming  the  palm 
for  the  ancients.  It  was,  perhaps,  with  some  reference 
to  it  that  Pope,  in  the  "  Essay  on  Criticism,"  burst  forth 
into  the  magnificent  encomium  in  honor  of  the  great 
poets  of  antiquity,  beginning,  — 

"Still  green  with  bays  each  ancient  altar  stands,"  &c. 

In  the  re-action  towards  the  mediseval  and  Gothic  anti- 
quity which  marked  the  close  of  the  last  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  present  century,  this  enthusiasm  for  Greece 
and  Rome  was  much  abated.  At  present  there  are 
symptoms  of  a  partial  revival  of  the  feeling. 

"  The  Tale  of  a  Tub  "  was  also  published  in  1704, 
though  written  in  1696.  The  title  is  explained  by 
Swift  to  mean,  that,  as  sailors  throw  out  a  tub  to  a 
whale,  to  keep  him  amused,  and  prevent  him  from  run- 
ning foul  of  their  ship,  so,  in  this  treatise,  his  object  is 
to  afford  such  temporary  diversion  to  the  wits  and  free- 
thinkers of  the  day  (who  drew  their  arguments  from 
"  The  Leviathan  "  of  Hobbes)  as  may  restrain  them  from 

1  See  p.  247.  2  See  p.  «#. 


258  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

injuring  the  state  by  propagating  wild  theories  in  reli- 
gion and  politics.  The  allegory  of  the  three  brothers, 
and  the  general  character  and  tendency  of  this  extraor- 
dinary book,  will  be  examined  in  the  second  part  of  the 
present  work.1 

s        • 

History,  1700-1745  :  Burnet,  Rapin. 

Burnet's  History  of  his  Own  Times,  closing  with 
the  year  1713,  was  published  soon  after  his  death  in 
1715.  Burnet  was  a  Scotchman,  and  a  very  decided 
Whig.  Exiled  by  James  II.,  he  attached  himself  to 
the  Prince  of  Orange,  and  was  actively  engaged  in  all 
the  intrigues  which  paved  the  way  for  the  Revolution. 
The  History  of  his  Own  Times,  though  ill  arranged 
and  inaccurate,  is  yet,  owing  to  its  contemporary  char- 
acter, a  valuable  original  source  of  information  for  the 
period  between  the  Restoration  and  1713.  Rapin,  a 
French  refugee,  published  in  1725  the  best  complete 
history  of  England  that  had  as  yet  appeared.  It  was 
translated  twice,  and  long  remained  a  standard  work. 

Of  the  theology  and  philosophy  of  the  period,  we 
reserve  our  sketch  till  after  we  have  examined  the 
progress  of  general  literature  between  1745  and  1800. 

Johnson.  —  Poetry,  1745-1800:  Gray,  Glover,  Akenside,  Young, 
Shenstone,  Collins,  Mason,  Warton,  Churchill,  Falconer, 
Chatterton,  Beattie,  Goldsmith,  Cowper,  Burns,  Darwin, 
Walcot,  Gifford,  Bloomfield. 

The  grand  yet  grotesque  figure  of  Samuel  Johnson 
holds  the  central  place  among  the  writers  of  the  second 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  In  all  literary  reunions 
he  took  the  undisputed  lead,  by  the  power  and  brilliancy 
of  his  conversation,  which,  indeed,  as  recorded  by  Bos- 
well,  is  a  more  valuable  possession  than  any  or  all  of 
his  published  w*odks.  His  influence  upon  England  was 

i  See  p.  464. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  259 

eminently  conservative  ;  his  manly  good  sense,  his  moral 
courage,  his  wit,  readiness,  and  force  as  a  disputant, 
were  all  exerted  to  keep  English  society  where  it  was, 
and  prevent  the  ideas  of  Voltaire  and  Rousseau  from 
gaining  ground.  His  success  was  signal.  Not  that 
there  were  wanting  on  the  other  side  either  gifted  minds 
or  an  impressible  audience  :  Hume,  Gibbon,  and  Priest- 
ley were  sceptics  of  no  mean  order  of  ability ;  and  Bos- 
well's  own  example l  shows,  that,  had  there  been  no 
counteracting  force  at  work,  an  enthusiastic  admiration 
for  Rousseau  might  easily  have  become  fashionable  in 
England.  But,  while  Johnson  lived  and  talked,  the 
revolutionary  party  could  never  gain  that  mastery  in 
the  intellectual  arena,  and  that  ascendency  in  society, 
which  it  had  obtained  in  France.  After  his  death  the 
writings  of  Burke  carried  on  the  sort  of  conservative 
propaganda  which  he  had  initiated. 

Johnson  was  born  at  Lichfield,  in  the  year  1709.  His 
father  was  a  native  of  Derbyshire,  but  had  settled  in 
Lichfield  as  a  bookseller.  After  having  received  the 
rudiments  of  a  classical  education  at  various  country 
schools,  he  was  entered  at  Pembroke  College,  Oxford, 
in  the  year  1728.  His  father  about  this  time  suffered 
heavy  losses  in  business,  in  consequence  of  which  John- 
son had  to  struggle  for  many  years  against  the  deepest 
poverty.  Nor  were  either  his  mental  or  bodily  consti- 
tution so  healthful  and  vigorous  as  to  compensate  for 
the  frowns  of  fortune.  He  seems  to  have  inherited 
from  his  mother's  family  the  disease  of  scrofula,  or  the 
king's  evil,  for  which  he  was  taken  up  to  London,  at 
the  age  of  three  years,  to  be  touched  by  Queen  Anne ; 
the  ancient  superstition  concerning  the  efficacy  of  the 
royal  touch  not  having  then  wholly  died  out.  His  mind 
was  a  prey  during  life  to  that  most  mysterious  malady, 

1  See  Hume's  Autobiography. 


260  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

hypochondria,  which  exhibited  itself  in  a  morbid  melan- 
choly, varying  at  different  times  in  intensity,  but  never 
completely  shaken  off;  and  also  in  an  incessant  haunt- 
ing fear  of  insanity.  Under  the  complicated  miseries 
of  his  condition,  religion  constantly  sustained  him,  and 
deserted  him  not,  till  at  the  age  of  seventy-five,  full  of 
years  and  honors,  his  much-tried  and  long-suffering  soul 
was  released.  In  his  boyhood,  he  tells  us,  he  had  got 
into  a  habit  of  wandering  about  the  fields  on  Sundays, 
reading,  instead  of  going  to  church ;  and  the  religious 
lessons  early  taught  him  by  his  mother  were  considera- 
bly dimmed ;  but  at  Oxford  the  work  of  that  excellent 
man,  though  somewhat  cloudy  writer,  William  Law, 
entitled,  "  A  Serious  Call  to  a  Holy  Life,"  fell  into  his 
hands,  and  made  so  profound  an  impression  upon  him, 
that  from  that  time  forward,  though  he  used  to  lament 
the  shortcomings  in  his  practice,  religion  was  ever,  in 
the  main,  the  actuating  principle  of  his  life. 

After  leaving  Oxford,  he  held  a  situation  as  under- 
master  in  a  grammar-school  for  some  months ;  but  this 
was  a  kind  of  work  for  which  he  was  utterly  unfitted, 
and  he  was  compelled  to  give  it  up.  He  went  to  Bir- 
mingham, where  he  obtained  some  trifling  literary  work. 
In  1735  he  married  a  Mrs.  Porter,  a  widow,  and  soon 
after,  as  a  means  of  subsistence,  opened  a  boarding 
school,  in  which,  however,  he  failed.  He  now  resolved 
to  try  his  fortune  in  London.  He  settled  there  with 
his  wife  in  1737,  and  supported  himself  for  many  years 
by  writing ;  principally  by  his  contributions  to  "  The 
Gentleman's  Magazine,"  which  had  been  established 
by  Cave  about  the  year  1730,  and  is  still  carried  on. 
His  Plan  of  a  Dictionary  of  the  English  Language  was 
published  in  1747.  The  price  stipulated  for  from  the 
booksellers  was  £1,575;  and  the  work  was  to  be 
completed  in  three  years.  "  The  Rambler,"  a  series  of 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  261 

papers  on  miscellaneous  subjects,  on  the  model  of  "  The 
Spectator,"  was  commenced  by  him  in  1750,  and  con- 
cluded in  1752.  This,  and  various  other  works  which 
appeared  from  time  to  time,  joined  to  his  unrivalled  ex- 
cellence as  a  talker,  which  made  his  company  eagerly 
sought  after  by  persons  of  all  ranks,  gradually  won  fol 
Johnson  a  considerable  reputation ;  and,  after  the  ac- 
cession of  George  III.,  he  received,  through  the  kind- 
ness of  Lord  Bute,  a  pension  of  three  hundred  pounds 
a  year.  This  was  in  1762.  He  continued  to  reside  in 
London  —  with  but  short  intervals  on  the  occasions  of 
his  tours  to  the  Hebrides,  to  Wales,  and  to  France  — 
till  his  death  in  1784. 

Johnson's  works  —  excepting  the  Dictionary,  a 
tragedy  called  "  Irene,"  a  few  poems,  "  The  Lives  of 
the  Poets,"  l  some  other  biographies,  and  a  short 
novel,  the  famous  "  Rasselas  "  —  consist  of  essays,  very 
multifarious  in  their  scope,  discussing  questions  of  pol- 
itics, manners,  trade,  agriculture,  art,  and  criticism. 
The  bulk  of  these  were  composed  for  "  The  Rambler," 
"The  Idler,"  and  "The  Adventurer."  His  prose 
style,  cumbrous,  antithetical,  and  pompous,  yet  in  his 
hands  possessing  generally  great  dignity  and  strength, 
and  sometimes  even,  as  in  "  Rasselas,"  rising  to 
remarkable  beauty  and  nobleness,  was  so  influential 
upon  the  men  of  his  day  that  it  caused  a  complete 
revolution,  for  a  time,  in  English  style,  and  by  no 
means  for  the  better;  since  inferior  men,  though  they 
could  easily  appropriate  its  peculiarities  or  defects,  — . 
its  long  words,  its  balanced  clauses,  its  labored  antithe- 
ses, —  could  not  with  equal  ease  emulate  its  excellence. 

Among   Johnson's   poems,  the  satire    called    "  Lon- 
don," an  imitation  of  the  third  satire  of  Juvenal,  and 
the  beautiful  didactic  poem  on  "  The  Vanity  of 
Wishes,"  are  the  most  deserving  of  notice. 
1  See  p.  492. 


262  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Gray,  the  son  of  a  scrivener  in  London,  was  edu- 
cated, and  lived  the  greater  part  of  his  life,  at  Cam- 
bridge. In  the  small  volume  of  his  poems  there  are 
several  pieces  which  have  gained  a  permanent  place 
in  our  literature.  "The  Bard,"1  "The  Progress  of 
Poesy,"  and  the  "  Ode  on  a  Distant  Prospect  of  Eton 
College,"  are  all,  in  their  different  ways,  excellent. 
As  a  writer  he  was  indolent  and  fastidious.  To  the 
former  quality  we  probably  owe  it  that  his  writings 
are  so  few ;  to  the  latter,  that  many  of  them  are  so 
excellent.  T^c  Tamous  "  Elegy  in  a  Country  Church- 
yard "  was  first  published  in  a  magazine  in  1750.  The 
melancholy  beauty  of  these  lovely  lines  is  enhanced  by 
the  severity  and  purity  of  the  style. 

Richard  Glover,  the  son  of  a  London  merchant,  produced  the  first 
edition  of  his  blank-verse  epic,  "Leonidas,"  in  1737.  It  has  not 
much  merit,  but  at  the  time  of  its  first  appearance  was  extravagantly 
praised  for  political  and  party  reasons ;  since  every  high-flown  senti- 
ment in  praise  of  patriotism,  disinterestedness,  and  love  of  liberty, 
Was  interpreted  by  the  opposition  into  a  damning  reflection  on  the 
corrupt  practices,  and  the  truckling  spirit  towards  foreigners,  by 
which  Sir  Robert  Walpole's  government  was  supposed  to  be  charac- 
terized. In  its  present  finished  state,  as  a  poem  of  twelve  books,  it 
first  came  out  in  1770.  The  "  Athenaid,"  a  sequel  to  the  "  Leonidas," 
and  in  the  same  metre,  but  extending  to  thirty  books,  was  published 
after  the  author's  death  in  1785;  it  is  a  dull,  versified  chronicle  of  the 
successes  gained  by  the  Athenians  in  the  Persian  war.  The  ballad  of 
"Hosier's  Ghost  "  is  the  only  composition  of  Glover's  that  is  worth 
remembering. 

Mark  Akenside  was  the  son  of  a  butcher  at  Newcastle-on-Tyne. 
The  poem  by  which  he  is  best  known,  "  The  Pleasures  of  Imagina- 
tion" (1744),  was  suggested  by  a  series  of  papers  on  the  same  subject 
(Nos.  411-421),  contributed  by  Addison  to  "  The  Spectator."  But  the 
analysis  of  the  pleasurable  feelings  which  are  awakened  in  the  mind 
by  whatever  excites  the  imagination,  though  suitable  enough  as  a  sub- 
ject for  an  essay,  becomes  insupportable  when  carried  on  through  a 
poem  of  more  than  two  thousand  blank  verses.  Akenside  had  no 
sense  of  humor  and  no  wit,  but  was  an  ardent  lover  of  nature.  He 
may  be  called  a  second-rate  Wordsworth,  whose  style  that  of  some 
Df  his  "Odes"  much  resembles. 

1  See  pp.  436,  492. 


EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  263 

The  "Night  Thoughts"1  of  Young  appeared  between  the  years 
1742  and  1746.  This  didactic  poem,  which  has  been  read  and  praised 
beyond  its  deserts,  is  in  blank  verse,  and  is  said  to  have  been  inspired 
by  the  melancholy  into  which  the  poet  was  plunged  by  the  death  of 
his  wife.  Moralizing  forms  the  staple  of  the  poem,  just  as  philoso- 
phizing forms  the  staple  of  Wordsworth's  "Excursion,"  and  micro- 
scopic description  of  Crabbe's  "Borough;"  but  tales  are  inserted 
here  and  there  by  way  of  episode,  just  as  in  the  other  two  poems 
mentioned.  There  is  a  fine,  fluent,  sermonizing  vein  about  Young ; 
but  a  flavor  of  cant  hangs  about  his  most  ambitious  efforts.  To  use 
a  phrase  of  the  day,  he  is  a  sad  "Philistine;"  and,  through  the  admi- 
ration long  felt  or  professed  for  him,  his  influence  must  have  much 
tended  to  propagate  false  taste.  The  work  is  divided  into  nine 
"Nights,"  the  headings  of  some  of  which  will  serve  to  indicate  its 
general  character;  they  are,  "On  Life,  Death,  and  Immortality," 
"Narcissa,"  "The  Christian  Triumph,"  "The  Infidel  Reclaimed," 
"  Virtue's  Apology,"  &c.  A  few  lines  occur  here  and  there,  stamped 
with  a  terseness  and  significance  which  have  made  them  almost,  if 
not  quite,  proverbial :  such  are,  — 

"  Procrastination  is  the  thief  of  time,"  — 
And, — 

"Pygmies  are  pygmies  still,  though  perched  on  Alps: 
And  pyramids  are  pyramids,  in  vales." 

In  philosophy,  Young  was  a  follower  of  Berkeley,  whose  idealism 
he  reproduces  at  some  length  in  the  sixth  " Night: "  — 

'•'Objects  are  but  the  occasion,  ours  the  exploit: 
Ours  is  the  cloth,  the  pencil,  and  the  paint, 
Which  Nature's  admirable  picture  draws, 
And  beautifies  creation's  ample  dome." 

In  theology,  he  leans  on  Butler,  speaking  of  — 

"  A  scheme  analogy  pronounced  so  true,  — 
Analogy,  man's  surest  guide  below." 

Young  found  an  ardent  admirer,  and  even  in  part  a  translator,  in 
Ganganelli,  Pope  Clement  XIV.,  a  man  prone,  like  himself,  to  bow 
before  the  power  and  splendor  of  this  world.  His  "  Odes  "  are  worth 
very  little;  many  of  them  teem  with  fulsome  praise  of  George  II., 
and  the  house  of  Hanover. 

Shenstone,  a  native  of  Hales  Owen,  near  Birmingham,  not  far 

1  The  full  title  is,  The  Complaint ;  or,  Night  Thoughts  on  Life, 
Death,  and  Immortality. 


264  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

from  which  lay  his  beautiful  little  estate  of  "The  Leasowes,"  which 
is  still  shown  to  the  curious  traveller,  published  his  poem  of  "  The 
Schoolmistress  "  in  the  year  1741.  It  is  in  the  Spenserian  stanza, 
and  affects  an  antique  dress  of  language ;  but  it  has  really  very  little 
merit.  Shenstone  was  a  vain  and  frivolous,  yet  withal  querulous, 
person;  his  poems  are  full  of  complaints  that  his  estate  is  too  small 
to  admit  of  his  gratifying  his  refined  tastes.  Some  of  his  ballads, 
e.g.,  "Valentine's  Day,"  and  "Jemmy  Dawson,"  have  some  pretty 
and  pathetic  stanzas.  The  "Pastoral  Ballad  "  is  a  charming  piece  of 
pretty  trifling.1 

Collins,  the  son  of  a  hatter  in  Chichester,  published  his  once 
famous  "Odes"  in  1746.  Nor  can  these  ever  be  entirely  forgotten, 
so  beautiful  is  the  diction,  so  clear  and  profound  are  the  thoughts. 
With  some  occasional  exaggeration  and  over-luxuriance,  this  author's 
language  is  for  the  most  part  exquisitely  musical  and  refined.  The 
odes  "To  Simplicity,"  on  "The  Manners,"  and  on  "The  Passions," 
are  among  those  most  deserving  of  notice. 

Mason,  the  friend  of  Gray,  wrote  in  1748  a  poem  called  "  Isis," 
containing  a  petulant  attack  upon  the  University  of  Oxford,  as  the 
nursery  of  Jacobitism  and  disaffection.  This  drew  forth  a  brilliant 
reply,  the  "  Triumph  of  Isis,"  from  Thomas  Warton,  then  a  young 
student  at  Trinity  College,  Oxford,  and  afterwards  distinguished  as 
the  historian  of  English  poetry.  Mason  wrote  a  number  of  odes,  and 
also  tried  his  hand  at  satire  in  the  "  Heroic  Epistle  to  Sir  William 
Chambers,"  which,  however,  has  more  ill-nature  than  wit.  We  shall 
meet  with  him  again  as  a  dramatist. 

Churchill,  the  son  of  an  Essex  clergyman,  took  orders,  married, 
obtained  preferment,  and  appeared  to  be  on  the  high  road  to  a  dean- 
ery, when  the  example  of  a  good-for-nothing  schoolfellow,'2  an  innate 
thirst  of  pleasure,  a  loose  moral  frame,  and  an  irritable  vanity, 
turned  him  aside  into  the  perilous  career  of  the  satirist  and  the  wit. 
He  flung  off  his  gown,  and  after  a  first  unsuccessful  attempt  with 
"  The  Conclave,"  a  satire  on  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Westminster, 
obtained  at  a  bound  all  the  notoriety  which  he  desired  by  the  publi- 
cation of  the"Rosciad"  (1761).  This  is  a  clever  personal  satire  on 
the  actors  who  then  trod  the  London  stage,  with  many  dramatic  crit- 
icisms not  without  value.  By  the  sale  of  this,  and  of  the  "Apology 
for  the  Rosciad,"  published  soon  after,  he  cleared  more  than  a  thou- 
sand pounds.  This  success  completely  turned  his  head ;  he  produced 
poem  after  poem  with  great  rapidity,  endeavoring  to  rival  the  satirico- 
didactic  vein  of  Pope;  allied  himself  closely  with  the  demagogue 
Wilkes ;  fell  into  profligate  ways ;  and  died  of  fever  at  Boulogne  in 

1  See  p.  423. 

2  Robert  Lloyd,  author  of  The  Actor,  a  poem  which  had  attracted 
much  notice. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTUKY.  265 

1764,  bankrupt  in  health,  money,  and  good  name.  Among  his  many 
poems  I  shall  single  out  for  mention  '*  Night,"  and  "  The  Prophecy 
of  Famine."  The  former,  dedicated  to  Lloyd,  appeared  at  the  end 
of  1761 :  its  purpose  is  to  vindicate  himself  and  his  friends  from  the 
attacks  which  were  levelled  against  them  on  the  score  of  irregular 
life.  It  is  spirited  and  clever,  reminding  the  reader  often  of  Pope's 
"  Imitations  of  Horace,"  but  just  without  that  marvellous  preter- 
natural element  which  makes  the  one  an  immortal  work  of  genius, 
the  other  a  brilliant  but  ephemeral  copy  of  verses.  These  lines  are 
a  good  specimen :  — 

"  What  is't  to  us,  if  taxes  rise  or  fall? 
Thanks  to  our  fortune,  we  pay  none  at  all. 
Let  muckworms,  who  in  dirty  acres  deal, 
Lament  those  hardships  which  we  cannot  feel. 
His  grace  who  smarts  may  bellow  if  he  please; 
But  must  I  bellow  too,  who  sit  at  ease  ? 
By  custom  safe,  the  poet's  numbers  flow 
Free  as  the  light  and  air  some  years  ago ; 
No  statesman  e'er  will  think  it  worth  his  pains 
To  tax  our  labors  and  excise  our  brains. 
Burthens  like  these  vile  earthly  buildings  bear: 
No  tribute's  laid  on  castles  in  the  air." 

In  "  The  Prophecy  of  Famine,"  which  appeared  in  1763,  the  chief 
wit  lies  in  his  ascribing  to  the  Scotch,  against  whom  the  satire  is 
aimed,  exactly  the  opposite  virtues  to  their  (supposed)  notorious  bad 
qualities.  But  there  is  no  proper  arrangement ;  one  often  does  not  see 
what  he  is  driving  at;  he  seems  to  have  written  away  just  as  things 
came  into  his  head,  without  having  formed  a  clear  intellectual  plan. 
The  goddess  of  Famine,  after  the  battle  of  Culloden,  is  supposed  to 
prophesy  to  two  Scotch  shepherd  boys,  Jockey  and  Sawney,  the 
elevation  of  Lord  Bute  to  the  premiership,  the  exaltation  of  the 
whole  nation  consequent  thereupon,  and  their  fattening  at  England's 
expense. 

Falconer,  a  Scotch  sailor,  published  his  descriptive  poem  of  "  The 
Shipwreck,"  in  heroic  verse,1  in  1762.  It  is  too  labored  and  artificial 
to  command  permanent  popularity.  The  author  was  himself  lost 
at  sea  a  few  years  afterwards. 

The  publication  of  Percy's  "  Reliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry," 
in  1765,  was  one  of  the  first  symptoms  of  that  great  literary  and  reli- 
gious re-action  from  classical  to  Christian  antiquity,  the  waves  of  which 
have  since  spread  so  far.  Naive  old  ballads,  such  as  "  Chevy  Chase  " 

1  That  is,  in  ten-syllable  lines  rhyming  in  couplets ;  the  standard 
measure,  in  English,  for  most  serious  compositions. 
23 


266  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

for  instance,  which  had  stirred  the  blood  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney  two  hun- 
dred years  before,  were  resuscitated  from  their  long  sleep,  and  supplied 
to  imaginative  youth  towards  the  close  of  the  century  a  mental  food 
quite  different  from  that  on  which  their  fathers  and  grandfathers  had 
been  reared. 

Chatterton,  "  the  wondrous  boy  that  perished  in  his  prime,"  be- 
longed to  a  family  which  for  several  generations  had  supplied  the 
sexton  of  the  noble  church  of  St.  Mary  Redcliffe,  at  Bristol.  In  an 
old  muniment  room  above  the  north  porch,  the  boy  had  come  across 
mouldering  parchment  records  connected  with  the  ancient  history  of 
the  church ;  and  the  strange  idea  seized  him  of  attributing  poems  of 
his  own  composition  to  an  imaginary  monk,  whom  he  called  Rowley, 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  pretending  that  he  had  found  the  original 
manuscripts  of  these  poems  in  the  muniment  room.  His  forgeries 
met  with  considerable  acceptance  in  the  West  of  England ;  but  he  was 
foiled  in  an  attempt  to  palm  off  some  of  them  upon  Horace  Walpole. 
He  came  up  to  London  in  1770,  and,  after  a  vain  attempt  to  support 
himself  by  the  pen,  died  there  in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  while 
yet  in  his  eighteenth  year:  according  to  one  account,  by  taking 
poison ;  according  to  another,  of  actual  starvation.  A  few  years  later, 
a  celebrated  and  keenly  contested  controversy  arose  concerning  the 
genuineness  of  the  Rowley  poems. 

Beattie  produced  the  first  canto  of  his  "  Minstrel "  in  1771.  I 
think  that  Mr.  Craik 1  is  unjust  to  this  poem  when  he  says  that,  in 
comparison  with  Thomson's  "Castle  of  Indolence,"  it  is  like  gilding 
compared  to  gold.  Beattie  had  not  the  same  power  of  luscious 
delineation,  nor  the  same  command  over  language,  which  belonged  to 
Thomson ;  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  he  sometimes  rises  to  a  strain  of 
manly  force  and  dignity  which  was  beyond  the  compass  of  the  other. 
The  metre  is  the  Spenserian  stanza.  The  tone  is  like  that  of  Gray  in 
the  "Elegy:"  it  is  the  chord  struck  by  Rousseau,  the  superiority  of 
simple  unbought  pleasures  to  luxury  and  pomp,  of  nature  to  art,  &c. 
The  great  defect  of  the  poem  is  its  want  of  plot.  The  following  is 
one  of  the  finest  stanzas :  — 

"  For  know,  to  man  as  candidate  for  heaven, 
The  voice  of  the  Eternal  said,  Be  free ; 
And  this  divine  prerogative  to  thee 
Doth  virtue,  happiness,  and  heaven  convey; 

For  virtue  is  the  child  of  liberty, 
And  happiness  of  virtue ;  nor  can  they 
Be  free  to  keep  the  path,  who  are  not  free  to  stray." 

Goldsmith's  poems  are  few  in  number,  but  several 
are  of  rare  merit.  More  than  one  recent  biography  has 

1  History  of  English  Literature,  v.  170. 


EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  267 

made  known  the  story  of  the  failures,  the  sorrows,  the 
erratic  youth,  of  this  child  of  genius,  who  retained  his 
Irish  heedlessness,  generosity,  sensibility,  and  elasticity 
to  the  last  moment  of  his  life.  His  didactic  poem, 
"  The  Traveller,"  appeared  in  1765,  at  which  time  he 
had  long  been  settled  in  London,  doing  miscellaneous 
literary  work  for  the  booksellers.  Both  the  form  and 
the  philosophy  of  this  poem  (which  teaches  that  the 
constituents  of  human  happiness  vary  with  climate, 
place,  and  circumstance)  bespeak  strongly  the  influence 
of  Pope.  Great  intellectual  growth  is  visible  in  "  The 
Deserted  Village  "  (1771).  We  have  the  same  charm- 
ing type  of  the  village  pastor,  "  passing  rich  on  forty 
pounds  a  year,"  which  is  presented  to  us  in  "  The 
Vicar  of  Wakefield ; "  but  the  poet  strikes  here  a 
deeper  and  graver  key,  when,  in  lines  to  which  the 
walls  of  St.  Stephen's  have  so  often  re-echoed,  he  be- 
wails the  extension  of  the  English  and  Irish  latifundia,1 
and  the  decay  of  the  peasantry  :  — 

"  111  fares  the  land,  to  hastening  ills  a  prey, 
Where  wealth  accumulates,  and  men  decay. 
Princes  and  lords  may  flourish  or  may  fade ; 
A  breath  can  make  them,  as  a  breath  has  made : 
But  a  bold  peasantry,  their  country's  pride, 
When  once  destroyed,  can  never  be  supplied." 

All  Goldsmith's  drollery  comes  out  in  the  "  Elegy  on 
Madame  Blaise,"  and  that  "  On  a  Mad  Dog  ; "  all  his 
wit,  rapidity,  and  luminous  discernment,  in  the  "  Retali- 
ation," a  series  of  imaginary  epitaphs  on  his  chief 
friends,  among  whom  are  included  Burke,  Garrick,  and 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 

Cowper  was  designed  by  his  father  for  the  bar  ;  but 
after  a  time,  his  unfitness  for  that  profession  becoming 
manifest,  he  was  appointed  to  a  clerkship  in  the  House 

1  The  name  given  to  the  vast  landed  estates  of  the  Roman  nobles. 


268  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

of  Lords.  But  an  overpowering  nervousness  prevented 
him  from  discharging  the  duties  of  the  post :  he  re- 
signed it,  and  went  to  live  in  the  country,  which  he 
never  afterwards  left.  He  formed  an  intimate  friend- 
ship with  a  man  of  great  force  of  character  and  fervid 
piety,  the  Rev.  John  Newton,  curate  of  Olney.  In  the 
poems  of  his  first  volume,  published  in  1782,  this 
friend's  influence  is  very  manifest.  These  poems  con- 
sist chiefly  of  some  long  didactic  compositions  of 
several  hundred  lines  each,  in  blank  verse,  entitled, 
"  Table-Talk,"  "  The  Progress  of  Error,"  "  Truth," 
"  Expostulation,"  "  Hope,"  "  Charity,"  "Conversation," 
and  "  Retirement."  Their  tone  is  generally  despond- 
ing, and  leaning  to  the  side  of  censure  :  he  declaims 
against  the  novelists  and  the  mischief  they  cause,  in- 
dulges in  a  tirade  against  the  press,  and  talks  of  u  the 
freethinkers'  brutal  roar."  Yet  there  is  so  much  grace 
and  delicacy  and  lightness  of  touch,  even  in  most  of 
the  censure,  and  he  is  so  every  inch  a  gentleman  every- 
where and  always,  that  an  affectionate  admiration  for 
the  writer  far  predominates  over  every  other  feeling. 
"  Tirocinium "  appeared  in  1784 :  it  is  an  earnest 
attack  on  the  public-school  system,  on  the  ground  of 
its  demoralizing  influence  on  character.  There  are 
many  vigorous  lines,  and  some  cutting  satire,  as  in  the 
line, — 

"  The  parson  knows  enough  who  knows  a  duke." 

There  is  also  a  beautiful  tribute  to  John  Bunyan, 
whom  he  will  not  name,  lest  a  name  then  generally 
despised  should  awaken  only  derision. 

His  second  volume,  containing  "  The  Task,"  appeared 
in  1785.  This  is  a  didactic  or  reflective  poem,  in  six 
books.  The  poet,  having  been  asked  to  write  a  poem 
on  a  so/a,  commences  with  a  sketch  of  the  history  of 


EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  269 

seats,  which  he  tells  with  a  mild  humor,  reminding  one 
of  the  playfulness  of  a  kitten,  graceful  and  pretty,  and 
never  vulgar  though  sometimes  trivial.  After  having 
come  down  to  the  creation  of  the  sofa,  fancy  bears  him 
away  to  his  school  days,  when  he  roved  along  Thames' 
bank  till  tired,  and  needed  no  sofa  when  he  returned  ; 
then  he  becomes  dreamy,  traces  his  life  down  the 
stream  of  time  to  the  present  hour,  noting  what  has 
made  him  happy,  stilled  his  nerves,  strengthened  his 
health,  raised  his  spirits,  or  kept  them  at  least  from 
sinking  ;  and  finds  that  it  has  ever  been  the  free  com- 
munion with  nature  in  the  country.  Many  charming 
descriptive  passages  are  interwoven  in  all  this.  The 
tale  of  "  Crazy  Kate  "  is  admirably  told.  Then  he 
maunders  on  about  the  gypsies  ;  then  launches,  —  if  the 
word  is  not  too  vehement,  — into  a  tirade  against  town 
life,  in  which  occurs  the  well-known  line,  — 

"  God  made  the  country,  and  man  made  the  town." 

An  additional  shade  of  melancholy  and  despondency  is 
evidently  thrown  over  the  poet's  mind  by  the  humilia- 
tions which  England  about  this  time  had  to  brook,  — 
the  treaty  of  Fontainebleau,  the  loss  of  America. 

Among  the  smaller  poems,  the  merry  history  of 
"  John  Gilpin  "  is  familiar  to  every  one.  "  The  Negro's 
Complaint "  was  written  to  expose  the  cruelties  of  the 
African  slave-trade.  The  stanzas  on  "  Boadicea  "  are 
finely  expressed,  and  with  a  more  sustained  elevation 
than  is  usual  with  him :  for  Cowper's  art  is  certainly 
very  defective  ;  he  seems  hardly  to  have  believed  that 
poetry  had  any  rules  at  all.  His  versification  is  care- 
less ;  and  to  rhythm  and  choice  of  words  he  pays  far  too 
little  attention  ;  weak  and  trivial  are  continually  an- 
nexed to  weighty  lines.  This  is  noticeable  even  in 
that  admirable  poem,  "  On  the  Receipt  of  my  Mother's 

23* 


270  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Picture."  Though  his  vein  is  usually  serious,  he  has  a 
genuine  native  humor  which  can  be  frolicsome  when  it 
pleases.  For  an  example,  take  some  of  his  lines  "  On 
a  Mischievous  Bull,"  which  the  owner  sold  at  the 
poet's  instance  :  — 

"  Ah !  I  could  pity  thee,  exiled 

From  this  secure  retreat ; 

I  would  not  lose  it  to  be  styled 

The  happiest  of  the  great. 

But  thou  canst  taste  no  calm  delight  : 

Thy  pleasure  is  to  show 
Thy  magnanimity  in  fight, 

Thy  prowess :  therefore  go,  — 

I  care  not  whether  east  or  north, 

So  I  no  more  may  find  thee : 
The  angry  Muse  thus  sings  thee  forth, 

And  claps  the  gate  behind  thee." 

"  The  Castaway  "  is  exquisite  in  its  mournful  pathos ; 
and  the  "  Verses  supposed  to  be  written  by  Alexander 
Selkirk,"  though  in  a  jingling  metre,  are  full  of  strik- 
ing turns  of  thought  which  insure  to  them  a  perma- 
nent popularity.  Cowper's  last  work  of  any  conse- 
quence was  his  translation  of  the  "  Iliad,"  in  blank 
verse  ;  this  appeared  in  1791. 

In  Scotland,  where  no  truly  original  poet  had  arisen 
since  Dunbar,  the  last  forty  years  of  the  century  wit- 
nessed the  bright  and  brief  career  of  the  peasant  poet, 
whose  genius  shed  a  dazzling  glow  over  his  country's 
literature.  Many  beautiful  songs,1  mostly  of  unknown 
authorship,  circulated  in  Scotland  before  the  time  of 
Burns  ;  and  Allan  Ramsay,  though  an  imitator  as  far  as 
the  substance  of  his  poetry  was  concerned,  had  so  writ- 
ten in  the  native  dialect  as  to  show  that  original  and 

1  For  an  interesting  account  of  them,  see  an  article  by  Prof. 
Shairp  in  Macmillan's  Magazine  for  May,  1861. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTUEY.  271 

truly  national  forms  lay  ready  for  the  Scottish  poet. 
With  this  foundation  to  work  upon,  with  the  educa- 
tion of  a  Scottish  primary  school,  a  knowledge  of  Pope 
and  Shenstone,  and  a  sound,  clear  intellect,  Burns 
made  himself  the  greatest  song-writer  that  our  litera- 
ture has  ever  known.1  Force  pervaded  his  whole  char- 
acter :  he  could  do  nothing  by  halves.  At  the  age  of 
eighteen,  that  passion  from  which  proceeds  so  much 
alike  of  the  glory  and  of  the  shame  of  man's  existence 
developed  itself  in  his  burning  heart,  and  remained  till 
death  the  chief  motive  power  of  his  thoughts  and  acts. 
He  fell  in  love  ;  and  then  his  feelings,  as  he  tells  us, 
spontaneously  burst  forth  in  song.  Two  other  strong- 
ly marked  tendencies  in  his  character  must  be  men- 
tioned, to  which  some  of  his  most  famous  productions 
may  be  attributed.  The  first  was  his  ardent  spirit  of 
nationality  ;  the  second,  his  repugnance  to,  and  revolt 
from,  the  narrow  sectarianism  of  his  age  and  country. 
Almost  the  first  book  he  ever  read  was  the  life  of  Sir 
William  Wallace  the  Scottish  patriot,  whose  hiding- 
places  and  ambushes,  as  pointed  out  by  history  or  local 
tradition,  he  visited  with  a  pilgrim's  fervor.  It  was 
this  spirit  which  produced  such  poems  as  — 

"  Scots  wha  hae  wi'  Wallace  bled."  2 

Or  the  "  Address  to  the  Scottish  Members  of  Parlia- 
ment." His  repugnance  to  Presbyterianism  -r-  exempli- 
fied in  such  poems  as  "  Holy  Willie's  Prayer,"  the 
"  Dedication  to  Gavin  Hamilton,  Esq.,"  and  the  "Ad- 
dress to  the  Unco  Guid,  or  the  Rigidly  Righteous  "  — 
redounds  partly  to  the  disgrace  of  the  system  which  he 
satirized,  and  partly  to  his  own.  If  he  rebelled  against 
the  ceremonial  and  formal,  he  rebelled  no  less  against  the 
moral  teaching  of  Presbyterianism.  His  protest  against 
1  See  pp.  432,  442.  2  See  p.  4&3. 


272  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

religious  hypocrisy  must  be  taken  in  connection  with 
his  own  licentiousness.  His  father,  an  earnest  adherent 
of  that  creed  and  system  which  the  son  broke  away 
from  and  despised,  though  wrestling  all  his  life  against 
poverty  and  misfortune,  endured  his  troubles  with 
patience,  and  died  in  peace,  because  he  had  learned  the 
secret  of  the  victory  over  self.  His  wondrously  gifted 
son  never  gained  that  victory  ;  and  the  record  of  his  last 
years  presents  one  of  the  most  sad,  disastrous  spectacles 
that  it  is  possible  to  contemplate. 

Burns's  first  volume  of  poems  was  published  in  1786; 
and  a  second  edition  appeared  in  the  following  year. 
"  Tarn  O'Shanter,"  a  fairy  story  burlesqued,  "  The  Cot- 
ter's Saturday  Night,"  and  "  The  Vision,"  are  among  ih*. 
most  noteworthy  pieces  in  this  collection ;  none  of 
them  attain  to  any  great  length.  After  his  marriage  to 
Jean  Armour,  he  settled  on  the  farm  of  Ellisland, 
uniting  the  functions  of  an  exciseman  to  those  of  a 
farmer.  But  the  farm  proved  a  bad  speculation,  — 

"  Spem  mentita  seges,  bos  est  enectus  arando,"  — 

And,  having  received  a  more  lucrative  appointment  in 
the  excise,  Burns  gave  up  Ellisland,  and  removed  to 
Dumfries.  Here  the  habit  of  intemperance,  to  indul- 
gence in  which  the  nature  of  his  employment  unhappily 
supplied  more  than  ordinary  temptations,  gradually 
made  him  its  slave  ;  disappointment  and  self-reproach 
preyed  upon  his  heart ;  want  stared  him  in  the  face  ; 
and  the  greatest  of  Scottish  poets,  having  become  a 
mere  wreck  of  his  former  self,  sank,  in  his  thirty-seventh 
year,  into  an  untimely  grave. 

"The  Rolliad"  was  a  satirical  effusion,  commenced  in  1784  by 
several  writers  belonging  to  the  party  of  Fox  and  the  recently  defeated 
coalition,  and  directed  against  Mr.  Pitt  and  his  supporters  in  parlia- 
ment. The  chief  of  these  writers  was  a  Dr.  Lawrence;  he  was 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  273 

assisted  by  George  Ellis,  a  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  and  two  other  persons 
named  Richardson  and  Tickle.  The  origin  of  the  name  was  this : 
Mr.  Rolle,  the  member  for  Devonshire,  in  a  speech  made  on  the 
Westminster  Scrutiny,1  had  informed  the  public  that  he  was  descend- 
ed from  "Duke  Rollo."  A  ludicrous  pedigree  of  "  John  Rolle,  Esq.," 
thereupon  appeared,  said  to  be  "extracted  from  the  records  of  the 
Herald's  Office."  This  was  followed  by  the  "Dedication  of  the 
Rolliad,  an  Epic  Poem  in  twelve  Books,"  written  by  Fitzpatrick, 
and  addressed  to  Mr.  Rolle.  Amidst  a  great  deal  of  sarcastic  eulogy, 
copiously  garnished  with  puns,  the  dedicator  congratulates  Mr.  Rolle, 
because,  as  his  ancestor  Rollo  fougnt  for  William  the  Conqueror,  — 

"  So  you  with  zeal  support  through  each  debate 
The  conquering  William  [  Pitt  ]  of  a  later  date." 

After  this  one  would  expect  the  poem  itself ;  but  the  joke  is  that 
there  is  no  poem.  "  The  Rolliad  "  itself,  though  affirmed  by  its  critics 
to  have  reached  the  twentieth  edition,  is  wholly  imaginary:  we  only 
know  of  it  through  the  supposed  extracts  from  the  poem  given  in  the 
"  Criticisms  on  the  Rolliad,"  which  appeared  in  twenty-one  successive 
numbers.  In  these  Pitt,  Dundas,  the  India  Board,  and  Warren 
Hastings,  with  many  other  persons  and  things,  were  assailed,  often 
with  cruel  wit  and  pungent  sarcasm ;  yet  it  seems  that  the  victims 
were  not  sufficiently  interesting,  nor  the  satire  quite  potent  enough, 
to  prevent  "  The  Rolliad  "  from  having  almost  fallen  into  oblivion. 

Dr.  Darwin,  an  eminent  physician,  published  his  "  Loves  of  the 
Plants  "  in  1789.  In  this  strange  poem  there  is  a  great  deal  about 
botany  and  electricity,  and  the  steam-engine,  and  weaving,  and 
cotton-spinning,  but  nothing  about  any  subject  suitable  for  poetic 
treatment.  Here,  for  instance,  is  an  invocation  to  steam :  — 

"  Soon  shall  thy  arm,  unconquered  Steam,  afar 
Drag  the  slow  barge,  or  drive  the  rapid  car ; 
Or,  on  wide  waving  wings  expanded,  bear 
The  flying  chariot  through  the  fields  of  air. 
Fair  crews  triumphant,  leaning  from  above, 
Shall  wave  their*fluttering  kerchiefs  as  they  move; 
Or  warrior  bands  alarm  the  gaping  crowd, 
And  armies  sink  beneath  the  shadowy  cloud." 

"The  Loves  of  the  Plants"  are  only  a  portion  of  a  larger  work, 
entitled  "  The  Botanic  Garden." 

Dr.  John  Wolcot,  better  known  as  "  Peter  Pindar,"  wrote  coarse 

1  Instituted  by  the  Government  with  the  view  of  unseating  Fox  for 
Westminster,  after  the  famous  election  of  1784. 


274  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

and  fluent  satires  against  the  king,  the  Royal  Academicians,  Dr. 
Johnson,  James  Boswell,  Gifford,  and  others.  "  The  Lousiad,"  in 
which  a  little  incident,  said  to  have  occurred  at  the  royal  table,  is 
made  the  subject  of  a  long  satirical  and  mock-heroic  poem,  appeared 
in  1785.1  Gifford.  besides  a  reply  to  Wolcot,  called  an  "  Epistle  to 
Peter  Pindar,"  is  the  author  of  the  "  Baviad  "  (1794)  and  "  Maeviad  " 
(1796),  two  clever  satires  on  a  school  of  namby-pamby  poets  and 
poetesses,  called,  from  the  assumed  name  of  their  leader,  Mr.  Robert 
Merry,  "  Della-Cruscans."  Lastly,  Robert  Bloomfield,  a  farmer's 
boy  in  early  life,  and  then  a  shoemaker,  gave  to  the  world,  in  1800, 
his  excellent  descriptive  poem  of  "The  Farmer's  Boy." 

The  Drama,    1745-1800 :    Home,  Johnson,    Moore,    Mason,    Col. 
man,  Murphy,  Goldsmith,  Foote,  Sheridan. 

The  tragic  stage  resumed  in  this  period,  under  the 
able  management  of  Garrick,  a  portion  of  its  former 
dignity ;  but  no  original  tragedies  of  importance  were 
composed.  Home's  play  of  "  Douglas,"  known  to  all 
schoolboys  as  the  source  of  that  familiar  burst  of  elo- 
quence beginning, — 

"  My  name  is  Norval :  on  the  Grampian  Hills 
My  father  feeds  his  flocks,"  &c.,  — 

appeared  in  1757.  Johnson's  tragedy  of  "  Irene,"  pro- 
duced at  Drury  Lane  by  Garrick  in  1749,  was  coldly 
received,  owing  to  the  want  of  sustained  tragic  interest. 
When  asked  how  he  felt  upon  the  ill  success  of  his 
tragedy,  the  sturdy  lexicographer  replied,  "  Like  the 
Monument."  When  we  have  mentioned  Moore's 
"  Gamester"  (1775),  celebrated  fdr  its  deeply  affecting 
catastrophe,  and  Mason's  "  Elfrida  "  (1752)  and  "  Carac- 
tacus"  (1759),  our  list  of  tragedies  of  any  note  is 
exhausted. 

The  comedy  of  manners,  as  exemplified  by  the  plays 
of  Congreve  and  Farquhar,  had  gradually  degenerated 
into  the  genteel  or  sentimental  comedy,  in  which  Col- 
man  the  elder  and  Arthur  Murphy  were  proficients. 

1  See  p.  -IIS. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  275 

Goldsmith's  "  Good-natured  Man  "  (1768)  was  a  clever 
attempt  to  bring  back  the  theatrical  public  to  the  old 
way  of  thinking,  which  demanded  "little  more  than 
nature  and  humor,  in  whatever  walks  of  life  they 
were  most  conspicuous."  Delineation  of  character  was 
therefore  his  principal  aim.  "  She  Stoops  to  Conquer," 
a  piece  written  on  the  same  plan,  appeared,  and  had  a 
great  run,  in  1773.  Foote,  the  actor,  wrote  several 
clever  farces  between  1752  and  1778,  of  which  "  The 
Liar "  and  "  The  Mayor  of  Garratt "  are  among  the 
most  noted. 

Sheridan,  the  son  of  an  Irish  actor  and  a  literary 
lady,  after  marrying  the  beautiful  actress  Miss  Linley, 
in  defiance  of  a  crowd  of  rivals,  and  after  being  for 
years  the  life  of  society  at  Bath,  connected  himself 
with  the  stage,  and  produced  "  The  Rivals "  in  1775. 
All  his  other  comedies  appeared  in  the  ensuing  five 
years ;  viz.,  "  The  Duenna,"  "  The  School  for  Scandal," 
"  The  Critic,"  and  "  The  Trip  to  Scarborough."  All 
these  plays  are  in  prose ;  and  all,  with  the  exception  of 
"  The  Duenna,"  reflect  contemporary  manners.  In  the 
creation  of  comic  character  and  the  conduct  of  comic 
dialogue,  Sheridan  has  never  been  surpassed.  His  wit 
flashes  evermore ;  in  such  a  play  as  "  The  Rivals,"  the 
reader  is  kept  in  a  state  of  continual  hilarious  delight 
by  a  profusion  of  sallies,  rejoinders,  blunders,  contrasts, 
which  seem  to  exhaust  all  the  resources  of  the  ludi- 
crous. Mrs.  Malaprop's  "  parts  of  speech  "  will  raise 
the  laughter  of  unborn  generations ;  and  the  choleric, 
generous  old  father  will  never  find  a  more  perfect  rep- 
resentation than  Sir  Anthony  Absolute.  In  the  evolu- 
tion of  his  plots  he  is  less  happy ;  nevertheless,  in  this 
respect  also,  he  succeeded  admirably  in  "  The  School 
for  Scandal,"  which  is  by  common  consent  regarded  as 
the  most  perfect  of  his  plays,  and  is  still  an  estab- 
lished favorite  in  our  theatres. 


276  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Learning,  1745-1800:  Person,  Lowth,  Pococke. 

The  progress  of  classical  and  Oriental  learning  owed 
little  to  England  during  this  period.  The  one  great 
name  that  occurs  (Edward  Gibbon)  will  be  mentioned 
when  we  come  to  speak  of  the  historians.  Sloth  and 
ease  reigned  at  the  universities ;  and  those  great  foun- 
dations, which  in  the  hands  of  monks  and  churchmen 
in  former  times  had  never  wholly  ceased  to  minister  to 
learning  and  philosophy,  were  now  the  mere  haunts  of 
port-drinking  fellows,  and  lazy,  mercenary  tutors.1 
Porson,  the  delicacy  of  whose  Greek  scholarship  almost 
amounted  to  a  sense,  and  who  admirably  edited  several 
of  the  plays  of  Euripides;  Bishop  Lowth,  author  of 
the  "  Prselectiones  "  on  Hebrew  poetry,  and  of  a  trans- 
lation of  Isaias ;  and  Pococke,  the  Arabic  scholar,  — 
are  the  only  learned  writers  whose  works  are  still  of 
value. 

Prose  Fiction,  1745-1800 :    Richardson,  Fielding,  Smollett, 
Sterne,  Goldsmith,  Miss  Burney,  Mrs.  Radcliffe. 

Favored,  in  the  manner  before  explained,  by  the  con- 
tinued stability  of  society,  the  taste  for  novels  grew 
from  year  to  year,  and  was  gratified  during  this  period 
by  an  abundant  supply  of  fiction.  Richardson,  Field- 
ing, Smollett,  and  Sterne  worked  on  at  the  mine  which 
Defoe  ,had  opened.  Richardson,  who  was  brought  up 
as  a  printer,  produced  his  first  novel,  "  Pamela,"  in 
1740.  A  natural  and  almost  accidental  train  of  circum- 
stances led  to  his  writing  it.  He  had  agreed  to  com- 
pose a  collection  of  specimen  letters  —  a  polite  letter- 
writer,  in  fact  —  for  two  booksellers;  and  it  occurred 
to  him,  while  engaged  in  this  task,  that  the  work  would 
be  greatly  enlivened  if  the  letters  were  connected  by  a 
thread  of  narrative.  The  bookseller  applauded  the 

1  See  Gibbon's  Memoirs. 


EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  277 

notion ;  and  he  accordingly  worked  up  the  true  story  of 
a  young  woman,  —  the  Pamela  of  the  novel,  —  which 
had  come  to  his  knowledge  a  few  years  before.  Henry 
Fielding,  sprung  from  a  younger  branch  of  the  noble 
house  of  Denbigh,  wrote  his  first  novel,  "  Joseph 
Andrews "  in  1742,  to  turn  "  Pamela  "  into  ridicule. 
Richardson's  masterpieces,  "  Clarissa  Harlowe "  and 
"  Sir  Charles  Grandison  "  appeared  successively  in  1748 
and  1753  ;  Fielding's.  "  Tom  Jones  "  and  "  Amelia,"  in 
1749  and  1751.  Smollett,  a  Scotchman,  wrote,  between 
1748  and  1771,  a  number  of  coarse,  clever  novels  upon 
the  same  general  plan  as  those  of  his  English  contem- 
poraries ;  that  is,  on  the  plan  of  "  holding  the  mirror  up 
to  nature,"  and  showing  to  the  age  its  own  likeness 
without  flattery  or  disguise.  The  best  are  "  Roderick 
Random"  and  "Humphrey  Clinker."  But  Richardson 
wrote  always  with  a  moral  purpose,  which  the  other 
two  had  not ;  though  that  does  not  hinder  much  that  he 
wrote  from  being  of  an  objectionable  tendency. 

In  Sterne,  humor  is  carried  to  its  farthest  point.  His 
novel  of  "  Tristram  Shandy  "  l  is  like  no  other  novel 
ever  written  :  it  has  no  interest  of  plot  or  of  incident ; 
its  merit  and  value  lie  partly  in  the  humor  with  which 
the  characters  are  drawn  and  contrasted,  partly  in  that 
other  kind  of  humor  which  displays  itself  in  unexpected 
transitions,  and  curious  trains  of  thought.  The  first 
two  volumes  of  "  Tristram  Shandy  "  appeared  in  1759. 
"  The  Sentimental  Journey,"  being  a  narrative  of  a  tour 
in  France,  in  which  the  author  assumes  credit  for  the 
utmost  delicacy  of  sentiment,  and  the  most  exquisite 
refinement  of  sensibility,  was  published  shortly  before 
his  death  in  1768.  The  character  and  life  of  Sterne 
have  been  admirably  portrayed  by  Thackeray,  in  his 
"  Lectures  on  the  English  Humorists." 

i  See  p.  468. 


278  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Johnson's  tale  of  "Rasselas,  Prince  of  Abyssinia," 
appeared  in  1759.  In  Lord  Brougham's  "  Life  of  Vol- 
taire," Johnson  is  reported  to  have  said  that,  had  he 
seen  Voltaire's  "  Candide,"  which  appeared  shortly 
before,  he  should  not  have  written  "  Rasselas,"  because 
both  works  travel  nearly  over  the  same  ground.  Noth- 
ing, however,  can  be  more  different  than  the  tone  and 
spirit  of  the  tales.  Each  writer  rejects  the  optimism  of 
Leibnitz,  and  pictures  a  world  full  of  evil  and  misery. 
But  the  Frenchman  founds  on  this  common  basis  his 
sneers  at  religion,  and  at  the  doctrine  of  an  overruling 
Providence  ;  while  the  Englishman  represents  the  dark- 
est corners  of  the  present  life  as  irradiated  by  a  com- 
pensating faith  in  immortality,  which  alone  can  explain 
their  existence. 

Goldsmith's  "  Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  the  book  which, 
by  its  picturesque  presentation  of  the  manners  and 
feelings  of  simple  people,  first  led  Goethe  to  turn  with 
interest  to  the  study  of  English  literature,  was  pub- 
lished in  1766.  "The  Man  of  Feeling,"  by  Henry 
Mackenzie,  appeared  in  1771.  Its  author,  who  wrote 
it  while  under  the  potent  spell  of  Sterne's  humor  and 
the  attraction  of  Johnson's  style,  lived  far  on  into  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  learned  to  feel  and  confess  the 
superior  power  of  the  author  of  "  Waverley."  "  The 
Man  of  the  World  "  and  "  Julia  de  Roubign6  "  are  later 
works  by  the  same  hand.  Frances  Burney  created  a 
sensation  by  her  novel  of  "  Evelina,"  published  in  1778 ; 
"  the  best  work  of  fiction  that  had  appeared  since  the 
death  of  Smollett." 1  It  was  followed  by  "  Cecilia  " 
(1782),  and,  at  a  long  interval  both  of  time  and  merit, 
by  "  Camilla,"  in  1796. 

Between  the  works  just  mentioned,  and  the  writings 
of  Godwin,  there  is  a  gulf  interposed,  such  as  marks 

1  Macaulay's  Essays. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  279 

the  transition  from  one  epoch  of  world-history  to  an- 
other. Instead  of  the  moralizing,  the  sketches  of 
manners,  and  delineations  of  character,  on  which  the 
novelists  of  this  age  had  till  then  employed  their  pow- 
ers, we  meet  with  impassioned  or  argumentative  attacks 
upon  society  itself,  as  if  it  were  so  fatally  disordered 
as  to  require  reconstruction  from  top  to  bottom.  The 
design  of  "Caleb  Williams,"  published  in  1794,  is  to 
represent  English  society  as  so  iniquitously  constituted 
as  to  enable  a  man  of  wealth  and  position  to  trample 
with  impunity  upon  the  rights  of  his  inferiors,  and, 
though  himself  a  criminal  of  the  darkest  dye,  to  brave 
the  accusations  of  his  poor  and  unfriended  opponent, 
and  succeed  in  fixing  upon  him,  though  innocent,  the 
brand  of  guilt.  Besides  "  Caleb  Williams,"  Godwin 
wrote  the  strange  romance  of  "  St.  Leon,"  the  hero  of 
which  has  found  the  elixir  vitce,  and  describes  the  de- 
scent of  his  undecaying  life  from  century  to  century. 
About  the  close  of  the  period,  Mrs.  Radcliffe  wrote  "  The 
Mysteries  of  Udolpho,"  and  "  The  Romance  of  the 
Forest"  —  two  thrilling  romances  of  the  Kotzebue 
school,  in  which  stirring  and  terrible  events  succeed 
each  other  so  rapidly,  that  the  reader  is,  or  ought  to  be, 
kept  in  a  whirl  of  horror  and  excitement  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end.  Horace  Walpole's  "  Castle  of 
Otranto  "  was  meant  as  a  satire  upon  novels  of  this 
class ,  though,  as  he  relates  with  great  enjoyment, 
numberless  simple-minded  novel-readers  took  it  for  a 
serious  production  of  the  romantic  school. 

Oratory,  1745-1800 :   Chatham,  Burke,    Sheridan,  &c. 

This  is  the  great  age  of  English  eloquence.  Perhaps 
no  country  in  the  world  ever  possessed  at  one  time 
such  a  group  of  orators  as  that  whose  voices  were 
heard  in  parliament  and  in  Westminster  Hall  during 


280  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

these  fifty  years.  Chatham,  Burke,  Fox,  Erskine, 
Pitt,  Sheridan,  and  Grattan !  It  seemed  as  if  the 
country  could  not  bring  to  maturity  two  kinds  of  ima- 
ginative genius  at  once :.  the  age  of  the  great  poets  — 
of  Milton,  Dryden,  and  Pope  —  passes  away  before  the 
age  of  the  great  orators  begins.  Our  limits  will  only 
permit  us  to  advert  to  a  few  celebrated  orations. 
Every  one  has  heard  of  the  last  speech  of  the  great 
Lord  Chatham,  in  April,  1778,  "the  expiring  tones  of 
that  mighty  voice  when  he  protested  against  the  dis- 
memberment of  this  ancient  monarchy,  and  prayed 
that,  if  England  must  fall,  she  might  fall  with  honor."1 
The  eloquence  of  Burke,  — 

"  Who,  too  deep  for  his  hearers,  still  went  on  refining, 
And  thought  of  convincing  when  they  thought  of  dining,"  2  — 

though  it  often  flew  over  the  heads  of  those  to  whom 
it  was  addressed,  was  to  be  the  admiration  and  delight 
of  unborn  generations.  The  speech  on  the  conciliation 
of  America  (1775),  that  addressed  to  the  electors  of 
Bristol  (1780),3  that  on  the  Nabob  of  Arcot's  debts 
(1785),  and  those  delivered  on  the  impeachment  of 
Warren  Hastings  (1788),  may  be  considered  his  great- 
est efforts.  Upon  a  subject  connected  with,  and  lead- 
ing to,  this  impeachment,  —  the  conduct  of  Warren 
Hastings  to  the  Begums  of  Oude,  —  Sheridan  delivered, 
in  1787,  a  speech  which  was  unfortunately  not  re- 
ported, but  which  appears  to  have  made  a  more 
profound  and  permanent  impression  upon  the  hearers 
than  any  speech  recorded  in  the  annals  of  parliament. 
"  Mr.  Windham,  twenty  years  later,  said  that  the 
speech  deserved  all  its  fame,  and  was,  in  spite  of  some 
faults  of  taste  such  as  were  seldom  wanting  either  in 

1  Arnold's  Roman  History,  vol.  i. 

2  From  Goldsmith's  Retaliation.  8  See  p.  473. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  281 

the  literary  or  the  parliamentary  performances  of  Sheri- 
dan, the  finest  that  had  been  delivered  within  the 
memory  of  man."1  Grattan  during  many  years  was 
the  foremost  among  a  number  of  distinguished  orators 
who  sat  in  the  Irish  parliament ;  and  his  fiery  elo- 
quence, exerted  at  a  period  when  England  lay  weak- 
ened and  humiliated  by  her  failure  in  America,  extorted 
for  that  body,  in  1782,  the  concession  of  legislative 
independence.  Pitt's  speech  on  the  India  Bill  in  1784, 
explaining  and  defending  his  proposal  of  the  system 
of  double  government,  which  has  been  lately  (1858) 
superseded,  as  well  as  his  speeches  on  the  slave-trade 
and  the  Catholic  Relief  Bill,  though  not  exactly  elo- 
quent, should  be  read  as  embodying  the  views  of  a 
great  practical  statesman  upon  subjects  of  deep  and 
permanent  interest.  Erskine  was  a  cadet  of  a  noble 
but  needy  family  in  Scotland.  He  crossed  the  border 
early  in  life,  raised  himself,  by  his  remarkable  powers 
as  an  advocate,  to  the  position  of  lord  chancellor,  and 
died  on  his  way  back  to  his  native  country,  in  his 
seventy-third  year. 

Pamphlets,    Miscellanies,    1745-1800:    Junius,   Burke,    Johnson, 
Hawkesworth. 

The  famous  "  Letters  of  Junius,"  addressed  to  "  The 
Public  Advertiser,"  extend  over  the  period  from  the 
21st  January,  1769,  to  the  21st  January,  1772.  Under 
his  impenetrable  mask,  the  writer  first  attacks  the  differ- 
ent members  of  the  ministry  of  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  to 
whom,  as  premier,  eleven  of  the  letters  are  addressed, 
in  which  the  life  and  character,  both  public  and  pri- 
vate, of  the  minister,  are  exposed  with  keen  and  merci- 
less satire.  The  thirty-fifth  letter  is  addressed  to  the 
king,  and  concludes  with  the  well-known  daring  words, 

1  Macaulay's  Essays,  article,  Warren  Hastings. 
24* 


282  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

"  The  prince  who  imitates  their  [the  Stuarts']  con- 
duct  should  be  warned  by  their  example,  and,  while 
he  plumes  himself  upon  the  security  of  his  title  to  the 
crown,  should  remember,  that,  as  it  was  acquired  by 
one  revolution,  it  may  be  lost  by  another."  The  mys- 
tery about  the  authorship,  which  volumes  have  been 
written  to  elucidate,  has  without  doubt  contributed  to 
the  fame  of  the  Letters.  .The  opinions,  however,  of  the 
best  judges  have  been  of  late  years  converging  to  a 
settled  belief,  that  Sir  Philip  Francis,  a  leading  opposi- 
tion member  in  the  House  of  Commons,  was  Junius, 
and  that  no  other  person  could  have  been. 

Johnson  is  the  author  of  four  pamphlets,  all  on  the 
Tory  side  in  politics.  He  was  often  taunted  with  writ- 
ing in  favor  of  the  reigning  dynasty,  by  which  he  had 
been  pensioned,  while  his  real  sympathies  lay  with  the 
house  of  Stuart.  But  his  prejudices,  rather  than  his 
reason,  were  Jacobite.  He  said,  that,  if  holding  up  his 
little  finger  would  have  given  the  victory  at  Culloden 
to  Prince  Charles  Edward,  he  was  not  sure  that  he 
would  have  held  it  up ,  and  he  jokingly  told  Boswell, 
that  "  the  pleasures  of  cursing  the  house  of  Hanover, 
and  drinking  King  James's  health,  were  amply  over- 
balanced by  three  hundred  pounds  a  year."  "  The 
False  Alarm "  appeared  in  1770 ,  the  "  Thoughts 
on  the  Late  Transactions  respecting  the  Falkland 
Islands  "  (in  which  there  is  a  well-known  invective 
against  Junius)  in  the  following  year.  "  The  Patriot " 
came  out  in  1774 ;  and  "  Taxation  no  Tyranny,"  in 
1775.  This  last  pamphlet  was  written  at  the  desire 
of  the  incapable  and  obstinate  ministry  of  Lord  North, 
as  a  reply  to  the  Resolutions  and  Address  of  the  Ameri- 
can Congress.  This  tirade  against  brave  men,  for 
defending  their  liberties  in  the  style  of  their  English 
forefathers,  shows  how  mischievously  a  great  mind  may 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  283 

be  blinded  by  the  indulgence  of  unexamined  preju- 
dices. 

The  longer  political  writings  of  Burke  we  shall 
consider  as  contributions  to  political  science,  and  treat 
under  the  head  of  philosophy.  The  remaining  treatises 
may  be  divided  into  four  classes,  —  as  relating,  1,  to 
general  home  politics ;  2,  to  colonial  affairs ;  3,  to 
French  and  foreign  affairs ;  4,  to  the  position  and 
claims  of  the  Irish  Catholics.  Among  the  tracts  of 
the  first  class,  the  "Sketch  of  a  Negro  Code"  (1792), 
an  attempt  to  mediate  between  the  planters  and  the 
abolitionists,  by  proposing  to  place  the  slave-trade 
under  stringent  regulations,  and  concurrently  to  raise 
the  condition  of  the  negroes  in  the  West  Indies  by  a 
series  of  humane  measures  borrowed  mostly  from  the 
Spanish  code,  deserves  special  mention  for  its  far- 
sighted  wisdom.  His  tracts  on  American  affairs  were, 
like  his  speeches,  on  the  side  of  conciliation  and  con- 
cession. Upon  the  subject  of  the  French  Revolution 
he  felt  so  keenly,  that  his  dislike  of  the  policy  deep- 
ened into  estrangement  from  the  persons  of  its  English 
sympathizers.  He  broke  with  his  old  friend  Fox,  and 
refused  to  see  him  even  when  lying  on  the  bed  of  mor- 
tal sickness.  The  last  of  the  four  letters  "  On  a  Regi- 
cide Peace  "  is  dated  in  1797,  the  year  of  his  death  ; 
and  the  manuscript  was  found  unfinished,  as  if  the 
composition  had  been  arrested  only  by  physical  inability 
to  proceed.  Against  the  penal  laws  then  weighing  upon 
the  Irish  Catholics,  he  spoke  and  wrote  with  a  generous 
pertinacity.  The  memory  of  his  mother  had  perhaps 
as  much  to  do  with  this  as  the  native  enlightenment 
and  capacity  of  his  mind.  His  writings  on  this  ques- 
tion, in  its  various  aspects,  extend  over  more  than 
thirty  years  of -his  life,  from  1766  to  1797.  His  last 
"  Letter  on  the  Affairs  of  Ireland  "  was  written  but  a 


284  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

few  months  before  his  death.  He  avows  that  he  has 
not  "  power  enough  of  mind  or  body  to  bring  out  his 
sentiments  with  their  natural  force,"  but  adds,  "  I  do 
not  wish  to  have  it  concealed,  that  I  am  of  the  same 
opinion  to  my  last  breath  which  I  entertained  when  my 
faculties  were  at  the  best." 

The  commencement  of  "  The  Rambler "  in  March, 
1750,  marked  an  attempt,  on  the  part  of  Johnson,  to 
revive  the  periodical  miscellany,  which  had  sunk  into 
disrepute  since  the  death  of  Addison.  Of  all  the 
papers  in  "  The  Rambler,"  from  the  commencement  to 
the  concluding  number  dated  2d  March,  1752,  only 
three  were  not  from  the  pen  of  Johnson.  Although 
many  single  papers  were  admirable,  the  miscellany  was 
pervaded  by  a  certain  cumbrousness  and  monotony, 
which  prevented  it  from  obtaining  a  popularity  compar- 
able to  that  of  "  The  Spectator."  "  The  Adventurer  " 
was  commenced  by  Dr.  Hawkesworth  in  1753.  In  that 
and  the  following  year,  Johnson  furnished  a  few  articles 
for  it,  signed  with  the  letter  T.  "  The  Idler,"  which 
was  even  less  successful  than  "  The  Rambler,"  was  car- 
ried on  during  two  years,  from  April,  1758,  to  April, 
1760.  All  but  twelve  of  the  hundred  and  three  articles 
were  written  by  Johnson.  For  many  years  afterwards 
this  style  of  writing  remained  unattempted. 

Historians,  1745-1800  :  Hume,  Robertson,  Gibbon,  Russell, 
Mitford,  Warton.     Biographers  :  Boswell,  &c. 

The  best,  or  at  any  rate  the  best-known,  historical 
compositions  in  our  literature,  date  from  this  period. 
The  Scottish  philosopher  David  Hume,  availing  him- 
self of  the  materials  which  had  been  collected  by  Carte, 
the  author  of  "The  Life  of  Ormond,"  published 
between  the  years  1754  and  1762,  his  "  History  of  Eng- 
land." The  reigns  of  the  Stuarts  were  the  first  portion 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  285 

published ;  in  the  treatment  of  which  his  anti-Puritanic 
tone  much  offended  the  Whig  party,  and  for  some  years 
interfered  with  the  circulation  of  the  book.  Johnson 
was  probably  right  when  he  said  that  "  Hume  would 
never  have  written  a  history,  had  not  Voltaire  written 
one  before  him."  For  the  "  Siecle  de  Louis  XIV." 
appeared  before  1753 ;  and  the  influence  of  the  "  Essai 
sur  les  Mceurs"  is  clearly  traceable  in  Hume's  later 
volumes.  William  Robertson,  a  Scottish  Presbyterian 
minister  who  rose  to  be  principal  of  the  University 
of  Edinburgh,  wrote  his  "  History  of  Scotland  dur- 
ing the  Reigns  of  Queen  Mary  and  King  James  VI." 
in  1759.  In  1769  appeared  his  "  History  of  the  Em- 
peror Charles  V.,"  and  in  1777  his  "History  of 
America."  As  his  first  work  had  procured  for  Dr. 
Robertson  a  brilliant  reputation  in  his  own  country,  so 
his  histories  of  Charles  V.  and  of  America  extended 
his  fame  to  foreign  lands.  The  former  was  translated 
by  M.  Suard  in  France ;  the  latter,  after  receiving  the 
warm  approbation  of  the  Royal  Academy  of  History  at 
Madrid,  was  about  to  be  translated  into  Spanish,  when 
the  Government,  not  wishing  their  American  adminis- 
tration to  be  brought  under  discussion,  interfered  with 
a  prohibition. 

Edward  Gibbon,  who  was  descended  from  an  ancient 
family  in  Kent,  was  born  in  1737.  While  at  Oxford, 
he  became  a  Roman  Catholic  from  reading  the  works 
of  Parsons  and  Bossuet.  His  father  immediately  sent 
him  to  Lausanne,  to  be  under  the  care  of  a  Calvinist  min- 
ister, whose  prudent  management,  seconded  as  it  was  by 
the  absence  of  all  opposing  influences,  in  a  few  months 
effected  his  re-conversion  to  Protestantism.  For  the 
rest  of  his  life  he  was  a  "  philosopher,"  as  the  eighteenth 
century  understood  the  term ;  in  other  words,  a  disbe- 
liever in  revealed  religion.  Concerning  the  origin  of 


286  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

his  celebrated  work,  he  says,  "It  was  at  Rome,  on 
the  15th  October,  1764,  as  I  sat  musing  amidst  the 
ruins  of  the  Capitol,  while  the  barefooted  friars  were 
singing  vespers  in  the  Temple  of  Jupiter,  that  the  idea 
of  writing  the  decline  and  fall  of  the  city  first  started 
to  my  mind.  But  my  original  plan  was  circumscribed 
to  the  decay  of  the  city,  rather  than  of  the  empire ;  and 
.  .  .  some  years  elapsed  .  .  .  before  I  was  seriously 
engaged  in  the  execution  of  that  laborious  work."1 
The  several  volumes  of  the  history  appeared  between 
1776  and  1787.  The  work  was  translated  into  several 
languages ;  and  Gibbon  obtained  by  European  consent  a 
place  among  the  historians  of  the  first  rank.2 

Among  the  minor  historians  of  the  period,  the  chief 
were,  Goldsmith,  the  author  of  short  popular  histories 
of  Greece,  Rome,  and  England ;  Russell,  whose  "  His- 
tory of  Modern  Europe  "  appeared  between  1779  and 
1784,  and  has  been  continued  by  Coote  and  others 
down  to  our  own  times  ;  and  Mitford,  in  whose  "  His- 
tory of  Greece,"  the  first  volume  of  which  was  pub- 
lished in  1784,  the  Tory  sentiments  of  the  author  find 
a  vent  in  the  continual  disparagement  of  the  Athenian 
democracy.  Thomas  Warton's  "  History  of  English 
Poetry,"  a  work  of  great  learning  and  to  this  day  of 
unimpaired  authority,  was  published  between  1774  and 
1781.  It  comes  down  to  the  age  of  Elizabeth.  If  all 
her  professors  of  poetry  had  so  well  repaid  her  patron- 
age, the  literary  reputation  of  Oxford  would  have  been 
more  considerable  than  it  is. 

Among  works  subsidiary  to  history,  the  chief  were, 
in  biography,  Johnson's  "  Lives  of  the  Poets  "  (1781), 
a  dull  "  Life  of  Pope  "  by  Ruffhead,  Hume's  "  Auto- 
biography," edited  by  Adam  Smith  (1777),  and  Bos- 
well's  "  Life  of  Johnson "  (1791).  The  records  of 
i  Memoirs,  p.  198.  2  See  p.  48C. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  287 

seafaring  enterprise  were  enriched  by  the  "  Voyages " 
of  the  great  Capt.  Cook  (1773-1784),  of  Byron,  and 
Vancouver. 

Theology,  1700-1800.  —  The  Deists:  Toland,  Collins,  and  others. 
—  Answers  of  Bentley,  Berkeley,  Butler,  and  Warburton.  — 
Methodism  :  Middleton,  Challoner. 

The  English  theological  literature  of  this  century  in- 
cludes some  remarkable  works.  A  series  of  open  or 
covert  attacks  upon  Christianity,  proceeding  from  the 
school  of  writers  known  as  the  English  Deists,  began  to 
appear  about  the  beginning  of  the  century.  Toland 
led  the  way  with  his  "  Christianity  not  Mysterious,"  in 
1702 ;  and  the  series  was  closed  by  Bolingbroke's  post- 
humous works,  published  in  1752,  by  which  time  the 
temper  of  the  public  mind  was  so  much  altered  that 
Bolingbroke's  scoffs  at  religion  hardly  aroused  any 
other  feelings  but  those  of  impatience  and  indignation. 
Collins,  Tindal,  Chubb,  Wollaston,  and  others,  took 
part  in  the  anti-Christian  enterprise.  In  order  to 
reply  to  them,  the  Protestant  divines  were  compelled 
to  take  different  ground  from  that  which  their  prede- 
cessors had  chosen  in  the  two  previous  centuries. 
Hooker,  Andrewes,  Laud,  Taylor,  and  the  rest  of  the 
High  Church  school,  had  based  the  obligation  of  reli- 
gious belief,  to  a  large  extent,  upon  Church  authority ; 
but  their  opponents  had  replied,  that,  if  that  principle 
were  admitted,  it  was  impossible  to  justify  the  separa- 
tion from  Rome.  The  Puritans  of  the  old  school  had 
set  up  the  Scriptures,  as  constituting  by  themselves  an 
infallible  religious  oracle ;  but  the  notorious,  impor- 
tant, and  interminable  differences  of  interpretation 
which  divided  the  Biblical  party,  had  discredited  this 
method  of  appeal.  The  Quakers  and  other  ultra  Puri- 
tans, discarding  both  Church  authority  and  the  letter 


288  HISTOEY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

of  Scripture,  had  imagined  that  they  had  found,  in  a 
certain  inward  spiritual  illumination  residing  in  the 
souls  of  believers,  the  unerring  religious  guide  which 
all  men  desired  ;  but  the  monstrous  profaneness  and 
extravagance  to  which  this  doctrine  of  the  inward  light 
had  often  conducted  its  adherents,  had  brought  this 
expedient  also  into  discredit.  The  only  course  left  for 
the  divines  was  to  found  the  duty  of  accepting  Chris- 
tianity upon  the  dictates  of  common-sense  and  reason. 
The  Deists  urged  that  the  Christian  doctrines  were  ir- 
rational. The  divines  met  them  on  their  own  ground, 
and  contended,  that,  on  the  contrary,  revelation  was  in 
itself  so  antecedently  probable,  and  was  supported  by 
so  many  solid  proofs,  that  it  was  but  the  part  of  pru- 
dence and  good  sense  to  accept  it.  The  reasonableness 
of  Christianity,  the  evidences  for  Christianity,  the 
proofs  of  revelation — such  was  the  tenor  of  all  their 
replies.  It  has  well  been  called  a  rationalizing  age,  — 
Seculum  Rationalisticum.  Among  the  crowd  of  publi- 
cations issued  by  the  Christian  apologists,  there  are 
three  or  four  which  have  obtained  a  permanent  place 
in  general  literature.  The  first  is  Bentley's  "  Phileleu- 
therus  Lipsiensis  "  (1713),  written  in  answer  to  Collins's 
"  Discourse  on  Free  Thinking."  This  is  a  short  and 
masterly  tract,  in  which  the  great  Aristarch  proved, 
with  reference  to  some  cavilling  objections  which  Col- 
lins had  derived  from  the  variety  of  readings  in  the 
manuscripts,  that  the  text  of  the  New  Testament  was, 
on  the  whole,  in  a  better  and  sounder  state  than  that  of 
any  of  the  Greek  classical  authors.  The  second  is 
Bishop  Berkeley's  "  Alciphron,"  published  in  1732. 
This  treatise  is  singularly  delightful  reading.  The 
beauty  of  the  language,  the  easy  and  artless  graces  of 
the  style,  the  lucidity  of  the  reasoning,  the  fairness 
shown  to  the  other  side  (for  Berkeley  always  treats  his 


EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  289 

opponents  like  a  gentleman,  and  gives  them  credit  for 
sincerity,  not  with  supercilious  and  censorious  arro- 
gance, like  such  writers  as  Bishop  Warburton),  are 
among  its  many  excellences.  In  form  it  is  a  dialogue, 
carried  on  between  Dion,  Euphranor,  and  Crito,  the 
defenders  of  the  Christian  doctrine  and  the  principles 
of  morals  ;  and  Alciphron  and  Lysicles,  the  representa- 
tives of  free-thinking,  or,  as  Euphranor  names  them  in 
imitation  of  Cicero,  "  minute  philosophers."  Alciphron 
frankly  avows  that  the  progress  of  free  inquiry  has  led 
him  to  disbelieve  in  the  existence  of  God,  and  the  real- 
ity of  moral  distinctions ;  he  is,  however,  gradually 
driven  from  position  after  position  by  the  ingenious 
questionings,  Socratico  more,  of  Euphranor  and  Crito, 
and,  after  a  long  and  stubborn  contest,  allows  himself 
to  be  vanquished  by  the  force  of  truth. 

The  third  is  the  "  Analogy  of  Religion,  both  Natural 
and  Revealed,  to  the  Constitution  and  Course  of  Nature  " 
(1736),  by  Bishop  Butler.  Of  this  profound  and  diffi- 
cult piece  of  argumentation,  the  exact  force  and  bearing 
of  which  can  only  be  mastered  by  close  and  continuous 
study,  some  notion  as  to  the  general  scope  can  be 
derived  from  the  summary,  found  near  the  conclusion, 
of  the  principal  objections  against  religion  to  which 
answers  have  been  attempted  in  the  book.  The  first 
of  these  objections  is  taken  from  the  tardiness  and  grad- 
ual elaboration  of  the  plan  of  salvation ;  to  which  it  is 
answered  that  such  also  is  the  rule  in  nature,  gradual 
change — "  continuity,"  as  we  now  call  it  —  being  dis- 
tinctive of  the  evolution  of  God's  cosmical  plan.  The 
second  stumbles  at  the  appointment  of  a  Mediator ;  to 
which  the  consideration  is  opposed,  how  God  does  in 
point  of  fact,  from  day  to  day,  appoint  others  as  the 
instruments  of  his  mercies  to  us.  The  third  proceeds 
from  those  who  are  staggered  by  the  doctrine  of  redemp- 


290  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

tion,  and  suggests  that  reformation  is  the  natural  and 
reasonable  remedy  for  moral  delinquency ;  to  which  it 
is  answered,  among  other  things,  that  even  the  heathen 
instinct  told  them  that  this  was  insufficient,  and  led 
them  to  the  remedy  of  sacrifice.  The  fourth  is  taken 
from  the  light  of  Christianity  not  being  universal,  nor 
its  evidence  so  strong  as  might  possibly  have  been  given 
us :  its  force  is  weakened  or  rebutted,  by  observing,  first, 
how  God  dispenses  his  ordinary  gifts  in  such  great 
variety,  both  of  degrees  and  kinds,  amongst  creatures 
of  the  same  species,  and  even  to  the  same  individuals 
at  different  times  ;  second,  how  "  the  evidence  upon 
which  we  are  naturally  appointed  to  act  in  common 
matters,  throughout  a  very  great  part  of  life,  is  doubt- 
ful in  a  high  degree."  "  Probability,"  says  Butler  in 
another  place,  "  is  the  guide  of  life." 

As  against  the  Deists,  the  controversy  was  now 
decided.  It  was  abundantly  proved  that  the  fact  of  a 
revelation  was,  if  not  demonstrable,  yet  so  exceedingly 
probable  that  no  prudent  mind  could  reject  it,  and  that 
the  Christian  ethics  were  not  inconsistent  with,  but  a 
continuation  and  expansion  of,  natural  morality.  Deism 
accordingly  fell  into  disrepute  in  England  about  the 
middle  of  the  century.  But  in  France  the  works  of 
some  of  the  English  Deists  became  known  through  the 
translations  of  Diderot  and  the  encyclopaedists,  and 
doubtless  co-operated  with  those  of  Voltaire  in  causing 
the  outburst  of  irreligion  which  followed  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1789. 

One  more  of  fhese  apologetic  works  must  be  men- 
tioned, "  The  Divine  Legation  of  Moses,"  by  Bishop 
Warburton  (1743).  This  writer,  known  for  his  arro- 
gant temper,  to  whom  Mallet  addressed  a  pamphlet 
inscribed,  "  To  the  most  Impudent  Man  alive,"  had 
considerable  intellectual  gifts.  His  friendship  with 


EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  291 

Pope,  whose  "  Essay  on  Man  "  he  defended  against  the 
censures  of  Crousaz,  first  brought  him  into  notice.  The 
favor  of  Queen  Caroline,  whose  discerning  eye  real 
merit  or  genius  seldom  escaped,  raised  him  to  the  epis- 
copal bench.  The  full  title  of  the  controversial  work 
above  mentioned  is,  "  The  Divine  Legation  of  Moses 
demonstrated  on  the  Principles  of  a  Religious  Deist, 
from  the  Omission  of  the  Doctrine  of  a  Future  State  of 
Reward  and  Punishment  in  the  Jewish  Dispensation." 
The  introduction  is  in  the  form  of  a  "  Dedication  to 
the  Free-Thinkers,"  in  which,  while  protesting  against 
the  buffoonery,  scurrility,  and  other  unfair  arts  which  the 
anti-Christian  writers  employed  in  controversy,  War- 
burton  carefully  guards  himself  from  the  supposition  of 
being  hostile  to  the  freedom  of  the  press.  "  No  gener- 
ous and  sincere  advocate  of  religion,"  he  says,  "  would 
desire  an  adversary  whom  the  laws  had  before  dis- 
armed." l 

The  rise  of  Methodism  dates  from  about  1730.  It 
was  a  re-action  against  the  coldness  and  dryness  of  the 
current  Protestant  theology,  which  has  been  described 
as  "polished  as  marble,  but  also  as  lifeless  and  cold." 
With  its  multiplied  "proofs"  and  "evidences,"  and 
appeals  to  reason,  it  had  failed  to  make  Christianity 
better  known  or  more  loved  by  its  generation  ;  its 
authors  are  constantly  bewailing  the  inefficacy  of  their 
own  arguments,  and  the  increasing  corruption  of  the 
age.  Methodism  appealed  to  the  heart,  thereby  to 
awaken  the  conscience  and  influence  the  will;  and  this 
is  the  secret  of  its  astonishing  success.  It  originated 
in  the  prayer-meetings  of  a  few  devoutly  disposed  young 
men  at  Oxford,  whom  Wesley  joined,  and  among  whom 
he  at  once  became  the  leading  spirit.  He  was  himself 

1  The  materials  of  the  above  sketch  are  partly  taken  from  an  able 
paper  by  Mr.  Pattison  in  the  volume  of  Essays  and  Keviews. 


292  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

much  influenced  by  Count  Zinzendorf,  the  founder  of 
Moravianism  ;  but  his  large  and  sagacious  mind  refused 
to  entangle  itself  in  mysticism ;  and,  after  a  curious 
debate,  they  parted,  and  each  went  his  own  way.  After 
fruitlessly  endeavoring  for  many  years  to  accommodate 
the  new  movement  to  the  forms  of  the  Establishment, 
Wesley  organized  an  independent  system  of  ministerial 
work  and  government  for  the  sect  which  he  had  called 
into  existence.  After  the  middle  of  the  century,  mul- 
titudes of  human  beings  commenced  to  crowd  around 
the  newly  opened  manufacturing  and  mining  centres  in 
the  northern  counties.  Neither  they  nor  their  employ- 
ers took  much  thought  about  their  religious  concerns. 
Hampered  by  their  legal  status,  and  traditionally  suspi- 
cious of  any  thing  approaching  to  enthusiasm,  the  clergy 
of  the  Established  Church  neglected  this  new  demand 
on  their  charity ;  and  miners  and  factory  hands  would 
have  grown  up  as  Pagans  in  a  Christian  land,  had  not 
the  Wesleyan  irregulars  flung  themselves  into  the  breach, 
and  endeavored  to  bring  the  gospel,  according  to  their 
understanding  of  it,  within  the  reach  of  these  untended 
flocks.  The  movement  obtained  a  vast  extension,  and 
has,  of  course,  a  literature  to  represent  it ;  but  from  its 
sectarian  position  the  literature  of  Methodism  is,  to 
use  an  American  phrase,  sectional  merely  ;  it  possesses 
no  permanent  or  general  interest.  Wesley  himself,  and 
perhaps  Fletcher  of  Madeley,  are  the  only  exceptions. 

Conyers  Middleton  wrote  in  1729  his  "  Letter  from 
Rome,"  in  which  he  attempted  to  derive  all  the  cere- 
monies of  the  Roman  Catholic  ritual  from  the  Pagan 
religion,  which  it  had  supplanted.  An  able  reply, 
"  The  Catholic  Christian  Instructed,"  was  written  by 
Challoner  (1737),  to  the  effect  that  Middleton's  aver- 
ments were  in  part  untrue,  in  part  true,  but  not  to  the 
purpose  of  his  argument,  since  an  external  resemblance 


EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  293 

between  a  Pagan  and  a  Christian  rite  was  of  no  impor- 
tance, provided  the  inward  meaning  of  the  two  were 
different. 

Philosophy,  1700-1800;  Berkeley,  Hume,  Reid,  Butler,  Hutche' 
son,  Adam  Smith,  Hartley,  Tucker,  Priestley,  Paley. 

Nothing  more  than  a  meagre  outline  of  the  history  of 
philosophy  in  this  period  can  here  be  attempted.  Those 
who  devoted  themselves  to  philosophical  studies  were 
numerous;  this,  in  fact,  up  to  past  the  middle  of  the 
century,  was  the  fashionable  and  favorite  pursuit  with 
the  educated  classes.  The  most  famous  work  of  the 
greatest  poet  of  the  age,  Pope's  "  Essay  on  Man,"  is  a 
metaphysico-moral  treatise  in  heroic  verse.  The  phi- 
losophers may  be  classed  under  various  heads :  we  have 
the  sensational  school,  founded  by  Locke,  of  whom  we 
have  already  spoken ;  the  idealists,  represented  by  Bishop 
Berkeley ;  the  sceptical  school,  founded  by  Hume ;  the 
common-sense  or  Scotch  school,  comprising  the  names 
of  Reid,  Brown,  and  Dugald  Stewart ;  and  the  moral 
ists,  represented  by  Butler,  Smith,  and  Paley. 

There  are  few  philosophers  whose  personal  character 
it  is  more  agreeable  to  contemplate  than  George  Berke- 
ley, the  Protestant  bishop  of  Cloyne.  He  was  born  in 
1684  at  Kilevin,  in  the  county  of  Kilkenny,  and  edu- 
cated at  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  where  he  obtained  a 
fellowship  in  1707.  About  four  years  later  he  went 
over  to  London,  where  he  was  received  with  open  arms. 
There  seems  to  have  been  something  so  winning  about 
his  personal  address,  that  criticism,  when  it  questioned 
his  positions,  forgot  its  usual  bitterness ;  and  extraordi- 
nary natural  gifts  seem  for  once  to  have  aroused  no 
envy  in  the  beholder.  Pope,  whose  satire  was  so  un- 
sparing, ascribes, — 

"  To  Berkeley  every  virtue  under  heaven ;  "  — 

25* 


294  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

And  Atterbury,  after  an  interview  with  him,  said,  "  So 
much  understanding,  so  much  knowledge,  so  much 
innocence,  and  such  humility,  I  did  not  think  had  been 
the  portion  of  any  but  angels,  till  I  saw  this  gentle- 
man." l 

Of  Berkeley's  share  in  the  controversy  with  the 
Deists,  we  have  already  spoken.  His  "  Principles  of 
Human  Knowledge,"  published  in  1710,  contains  the 
idealist  system  for  which  his  name  is  chiefly  remem- 
bered.2 In  devising  this,  his  aim  was  still  practical ;  he 
hoped  to  cut  the  ground  away  from  beneath  the  ration- 
alizing assailants  of  Christianity  by  proving  that  the 
existence  of  the  material  universe,  the  supposed  invari- 
able laws  of  which  were  set  up  by  the  sceptics  as  incon- 
sistent with  revelation,  was  in  itself  problematical,  since 
all  that  we  can  know  directly  respecting  it  is  the  ideas 
which  we  form  of  it,  which  ideas  may,  after  all,  be 
delusive.  His  other  philosophical  works  are,  "  Hylas 
and  Philonous,"  "  Siris  ;  or,  Reflections  on  Tar- Water," 
and  a  "  Theory  of  Vision."  Sir  James  Mackintosh  was 
of  opinion  that  Berkeley's  works  were,  beyond  dispute, 
the  finest  models  of  philosophical  style  since  Cicero. 

David  Hume,  born  at  Edinburgh  in  1711,  was  edu- 
cated for  the  bar.  He  was  never  married.  He  enjoyed 
through  life  perfect  health,  and  was  gifted  with  unflag- 
ging spirits,  and  a  cheerful,  amiable  disposition.  His 
passions  were  not  naturally  strong ;  and  his  sound  judg- 
ment and  good  sense  enabled  him  to  keep  them  under 
control.  He  died  in  1776. 

Hume's  chief  philosophical  works  are  contained  in 
two  volumes  of  Essays  and  Treatises.  The  first  vol- 
ume consists  of  "Essays,  Moral,  Political, and  Literary," 

1  Mackintosh's  Dissertation  on  Ethical  Philosophy,  article  Berke- 
ley. 

2  See  p.  507. 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  295 

in  two  parts,  originally  published  in  1742  and  1752 
respectively.  The  second  volume  contains  "  The  In- 
quiry concerning  Human  Understanding,"  1  and  other 
treatises,  the  whole  of  which  are  a  revised  condensation 
of  "  The  Treatise  on  Human  Nature,"  published  in 
1738,  and  spoken  of  in  the  advertisement  to  the  Essays 
and  Treatises  as  a  "juvenile  work,"  for  which  the 
author  declined  to  be  responsible  in  his  riper  years.  In 
these  treatises  Hume  propounds  his  theory  of  universal 
scepticism.  Berkeley  had  denied  matter,  or  the  myste- 
rious somewhat,  inferred  by  philosophers  to  exist 
beneath  the  sensible  properties  of  objects ;  and  Hume 
went  yet  further,  and  denied  mind^  the  substance  in 
which  successive  sensations  and  reflections  are  supposed 
to  inhere.  That  we  do  perceive,  and  do  reflect,  is,  he 
admitted,  certain ;  but  what  that  is  which  perceives 
and  reflects,  whether  it  has  any  independent  being  of 
itself,  apart  from  the  series  of  impressions  of  which  it 
is  the  subject,  is  a  point  altogether  obscure,  and  on 
which,  he  maintained,  our  faculties  have  no  means  of 
determining.  Philosophy  was  thus  placed  in  a  dilem- 
ma, and  became  impossible.2 

The  Scotch  or  common-sense  school  has  received 
ample  justice  at  the  hands  of  Cousin  in  his  "  Cours 
de  Philosophic  Moderne."  It  commenced  with  Reid's 
"  Inquiry  into  the  Human  Mind  upon  the  Principles  of 
Common-Sense,"  published  in  1764.  As  a  re-action 
against  the  idealism  of  Berkeley  and  the  scepticism  of 
Hume,  the  rise  of  the  common-sense  school  was  natural 
enough.  It  said,  in  effect,  "  We  have  a  rough,  gen- 
eral notion  of  the  existence  of  matter  outside  and 
independently  of  ourselves,  of  which  no  subtlety  can 
deprive  us  ;  and  the  instinctive  impulse  which  we  feel 
to  put  faith  in  the  results  of  our  mental  operations  is 

1  See  p.  507.  2  See  Lewes's  History  of  Philosophy. 


296  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

an  irrefragable  proof,  and  the  best  that  can  be  given, 
of  the  reasonableness  of  that  faith." 

Among  the  moralists  of  that  period,  Butler  holds  the 
highest  place.  The  fact  of  the  existence  in  the  mind 
of  disinterested  affections  and  dispositions,  pointing  to 
the  good  of  others,  which  Hobbes  had  denied,  Butler, 
in  those  admirable  u  Sermons  "  preached  in  the  Rolls 
Chapel,  has  incontrovertibly  established.  "  In  these 
sermons  he  has  taught  truths  more  capable  of  being 
exactly  distinguished  from  the  doctrines  of  his  prede- 
cessors, more  satisfactorily  established  by  him,  more 
comprehensively  applied  to  particulars,  more  rationally 
connected  with  each  other,  and  therefore  more  worthy 
the  name  of  discovery,  than  any  with  which  we  are 
acquainted  ;  if  we  ought  not,  with  some  hesitation,  to 
except  the  first  steps  of  the  Grecian  philosophers  to- 
wards a  "  Theory  of  Morals."  l  Hutcheson,  an  Irish- 
man, author  of  an  "  Inquiry  into  Beauty  and  Virtue," 
and  other  works,  followed  in  the  same  track  of  thought. 
Hume's  "  Inquiry  concerning  the  Principles  of  Morals  " 
was  considered  by  himself  to  be  the  best  of  his  writ- 
ings ;  it  is,  at  any  rate,  the  least  paradoxical.  Adam 
Smith,  in  his  "  Theory  of  Moral  Sentiments,"  published 
in  1759,  follows  Hume  in  holding  the  principle  of 
sympathy  to  be  the  chief  source  of  our  moral  feelings 
and  judgments.  Hartley,  in  his  remarkable  book, 
"  Observations  on  Man "  (1749),  teaches  that  the 
development  of  the  moral  faculty  within  us  is  mainly 
effected  through  the  principle  of  the  association  of 
ideas,  a  term  first  applied  in  this  sense  by  Locke. 
Tucker's  "  Light  of  Nature  "  is  chiefly  metaphysical ; 
so  far  as  he  touches  on  morals,  he  shows  a  disposition 
to  return  to  the  selfish  theory,  in  opposition  to  the 
view  of  disinterested  moral  feelings  introduced  by 

1  Mackintosh's  Dissertation,  p.  191. 


EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  297 

Butler.  Priestley,  who,  brought  up  as  a  Calvinist, 
embraced  Unitarian  opinions,  and  sympathized  with 
the  French  Revolution,  adopted  in  his  "  Illustrations 
of  Philosophical  Necessity  "  the  belief  as  to  the  inevit- 
able character  of  human  actions,  which  Auguste  Comte 
has  extended  widely  in  our  own  times.  In  his  "  Insti- 
tutes of  Natural  and  Revealed  Religion,"  Priestley's 
entire  system  is  laid  bare.  But  neither  as  theologian 
nor  as  philosopher  will  he  be  remembered  so  long  as 
for  his  claim  to  a  place  in  the  temple  of  science,  in 
right  of  his  discovery  of  oxygen.  Lastly,  William 
Paley,  following  Tucker,  elaborated  in  his  "  Moral  and 
Political  Philosophy,"  published  in  1785,  his  well- 
known  system  of  utilitarianism.  "  Virtue,"  he  said,  "  is 
the  doing  good  to  mankind,  in  obedience  to  the  will 
of  God,  and  for  the  sake  of  everlasting  happiness." 
Mackintosh  remarks  that  it  follows  as  a  necessary 
consequence,  from  this  proposition,  that  "  every  act 
which  flows  from  generosity  or  benevolence  is  a  vice." 

Political  Science  :  Burke,  Godwin,  Paine. 

Hume's  political  writings,  on  the  Origin  of  Govern- 
ment, the  Protestant  Succession,  the  Idea  of  a  Perfect 
Commonwealth,  &c.,  form  a  large  portion  of  the  two 
volumes  of  Essays  and  Treatises  already  mentioned. 
Hume  regards  political  science  as  a  speculative  philoso- 
pher ;  in  Burke,  the  knowledge  and  the  tendencies 
of  the  philosopher,  the  jurist,  the  statesman,  and  the 
patriot,  appear  all  united.  The  fundamental  idea  of 
his  political  philosophy  was,  that  civil  liberty  was 
rather  prescriptive  than  theoretic;  that  order  implied 
progress,  and  progress  presupposed  order;  that  in  a 
political  society  the  rights  of  its  members  were  not 
absolute  and  unconditional,  but  strictly  relative  to, 
and  to  be  sought  in  conformity  with,  the  existing  con- 


298  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

stitution  of  that  society.  These  views  are  put  forth  in 
the  most  masterly  and  eloquent  manner  in  his  "  Reflec- 
tions on  the  Revolution  in  France,"  published  in  1790. 
Among  those  who  supported  in  this  country  the  politi- 
cal theories  of  the  French  Jacobins  and  Rousseau, 
the  most  eminent  were  William  Godwin  and  Thomas 
Paine.  The  former  published  his  "  Inquiry  concerning 
Political  Justice "  in  1793  ;  the  latter  was  living  in 
America  during  the  war  of  independence,  and,  by  the 
publication  of  his  periodical  tracts  entitled  "  Common 
Sense,"  contributed  not  a  little  to  chase  away  the 
despondency  which  was  beginning  at  one  time  to  pre- 
vail among  the  Colonists,  and  to  define  their  position 
and  political  aims.  The  "  Rights  of  Man  "  appeared 
in  1792 ;  and  the  "  Age  of  Reason,"  a  work  conceived 
in  the  extremest  French  free-thinking  spirit,  in  1794. 

Political  Economy :   Adam  Smith.  —  Criticism  :   Burke,  Rey- 
nolds, Walpole. 

The  science  of  political  economy  was,  if  not  in- 
vented, at  least  enlarged,  simplified,  and  systematized, 
by  Adam  Smith,  in  his  celebrated  "  Inquiry  into  the 
Nature  and  Causes  of  the  Wealth  of  Nations  "  (1776). 
The  late  rise  of  this  science  may  be  ascribed  to  several 
causes  :  to  the  contempt  with  which  the  ancient  Greek 
philosophers  regarded  the  whole  business  of  money- 
getting  ;  to  the  aversion  entertained  by  the  philoso- 
phers of  later  schools  for  luxury,  as  the  great  depraver 
of  morals,  whence  they  would  be  little  disposed  to 
analyze  the  sources  of  that  wealth,  the  accumulation 
of  which  made  luxury  possible ;  lastly,  to  the  circum- 
stance, that,  during  the  middle  ages,  the  clergy  were 
the  sole  educators  of  society,  and  were  not  likely  to 
undertake  the  study  of  phenomena  which  lay  quite  out 
of  their  track  of  thought  and  action.  Only  when  the 


EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  299 

laity  came  to  be  generally  educated,  and  began  to 
reflect  intelligently  upon  the  principles  and  laws  in- 
volved in  the  every-day  operations  of  the  temporal  life, 
could  a  science  of  wealth  become  possible. 

Certain  peculiarities  about  the  East  Indian  trade  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  which  consisted  chiefly  in  the 
exchange  of  silks  and  other  Indian  manufactures  for 
bullion,  gave  occasion  to  a  number  of  pamphlets,  in 
which  the  true  principles  of  commerce  were  gradually 
developed.  But  what  was  called  the  "mercantile  sys- 
tem "  was  long  the  favorite  doctrine  both  with  states- 
men and  economists,  and,  indeed,  is  even  yet  not  quite 
exploded.  By  this  was  meant  a  system  of  cunning 
devices,  having  for  their  object,  by  repressing  trade  in 
one  direction,  and  encouraging  it  in  another,  to  leave 
the  community  at  the  end  of  each  year  more  plenti- 
fully supplied  with  the  precious  metals  (in  which  alone 
wealth  was  then  supposed  to  consist)  than  at  the  end 
of  the  preceding.  The  tradition  of  over-government, 
which  had  come  down  from  the  Roman  empire,  joined 
to  the  narrow  corporate  spirit  which  had  arisen  among 
the  great  trading  cities  of  the  middle  ages,  led  natu- 
rally to  such  views  of  national  economy.  Every  one 
knows  what  efforts  it  has  cost  in  our  own  days  to 
establish  the  simple  principle  of  commercial  freedom, 
—  the  right  to  "  buy  in  the  cheapest,  and  sell  in  the 
dearest  market."  That  this  principle  has  at  last  pre- 
vailed, and  that  money,  in  so  far  as  it  is  not  itself  a 
mere  commodity,  is  now  regarded  not  as  wealth,  but 
as  the  variable  representative  of  wealth,  is  mainly  due 
to  the  great  work  of  Adam  Smith. 

Burke  published  in  1756  his  celebrated  philosophical 
"  Essay  "  on  the  origin  of  our  ideas  of  the  "  Sublime 
and  Beautiful."  He  was  then  a  young  man,  and  had 
studied  philosophy  in  the  sensuous  school  of  Locke. 


300  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

At  a  later  period  of  his  life,  he  would  probably  have 
imported  into  his  essay  .some  of  the  transcendental 
ideas  which  had  been  brought  to  light  in  the  interval, 
and  for  which  his  mind  presented  a  towardly  and  con- 
genial soil.  The  analysis  of  those  impressions  on  the 
mind,  which  raise  the  emotion  of  the  sublime  or  that 
of  the  beautiful,  is  carefully  and  ingeniously  made; 
the  logic  is  generally  sound  ;  and,  if  the  theory  does  not 
seem  to  be  incontrovertibly  established  as  a  whole, 
the  illustrative  reasoning  employed  in  support  of  it  is, 
for  the  most  part,  striking,  picturesque,  and  true.  The 
reader  may  find  it  difficult  to  understand  how  these 
two  judgments  can  be  mutually  consistent;  yet  it  is 
perfectly  intelligible.  The  theory,  for  instance,  which 
makes  the  emotion  of  the  sublime  inseparably  asso- 
ciated with  the  sense  of  the  terrible  (terror,  "  the 
common  stock  of  every  thing  that  is  sublime,"  part  ii. 
sect.  5),  is  not  quite  proved;  for  he  gives  magnificence 
—  such  as  that  of  the  starry  heavens  —  as  a  source  of 
the  sublime,  without  showing  (indeed,  it  would  be 
difficult  to  show)  that  whatever  was  magnificent  was 
necessarily  also  terrible.  But  at  the  same  time  he 
proves,  with  great  ingenuity  and  completeness,  that  in 
a  great  many  cases,  when  the  emotion  of  the  sublime 
is  present,  the  element  of  terror  is,  if  not  a  necessary 
condition,  at  any  rate,  a  concomitant  and  influential 
circumstance.  His  theory  of  the  beautiful  is  equally 
ingenious,  but  perhaps  still  more  disputable.  By 
beauty,  he  means  (part  iii.  sect.  1)  "  that  quality  or 
those  qualities  in  bodies  by  which  they  cause  love  or 
some  passion  similar  to  it."  He  labors  at  length  to 
prove  that  beauty  does  not  depend  upon  proportion, 
nor  upon  fitness  for  the  end  designed  ;  but  that  it  does 
chiefly  depend  on  the  five  following  properties :  1, 
smallness ;  2,  smoothness ;  3,  gradual  variation ;  4, 


EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  301 

delicacy;  5,  mild  tone  in  color.  That  the  emotion  of 
beauty  is  unconnected  with  the  perception  of  harmony 
or  proportion,  is  certainly  a  bold  assertion.  However, 
even  if  the  analysis  were  ever  so  accurate  and  perfect, 
it  might  still  be  maintained  that  the  treatise  contains 
little  that  is  really  valuable  towards  the  formation  of  a 
sound  system  of  criticism,  either  in  sesthetics  or  litera- 
ture. The  reason  is  briefly  this,  —  that  the  quality 
which  men  chiefly  look  for  in  works  of  art  and  litera- 
ture, is  that  which  is  variously  named  genius,  great- 
ness, nobleness,  distinction,  the  ideal,  &c. ;  where  this 
quality  is  absent,  all  Burke's  formal  criteria  for  testing 
the  presence  of  the  sublime  or  the  beautiful  may  be 
complied  with,  and  yet  the  work  will  remain  intrinsi- 
cally insignificant.  As  applied  to  nature,  the  analysis 
may  perhaps  be  of  more  value,  because  the  mystery 
of  infinity  forms  the  background  to  each  natural  scene : 
the  divine  calm  of  the  universe  is  behind  the  moun- 
tain-peak or  the  rolling  surf,  and  furnishes  punctually, 
and  in  all  cases,  that  element  of  nobleness  which,  in 
the  works  of  man,  is  present  only  in  the  higher  souls. 
Hence,  there  being  no  fear  that  we  shall  ever  find 
Nature,  if  we  understand  her,  mean,  or  trivial,  or 
superficial,  —  as  we  often  find  the  human  artist,  —  we 
may  properly  concentrate  our  attention  on  the  sources 
of  the  particular  emotions  which  her  scenes  excite ; 
and,  among  these  particular  emotions,  those  of  the  sub- 
lime and  beautiful  are  second  to  none  in  power. 

Sir  Joshua  Reynolds's  excellent  "  Discourses  on  Paint- 
ing," or  rather  the  first  part  of  them,  appeared  in  1779. 
Horace  Walpole's  "  Anecdotes  of  Painting,"  compiled 
from  the  un wieldly  collections  of  Virtue  on  the  lives 
and  works  of  British  artists,  were  published  between 
the  years  1761  and  1771. 

26 


302  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
MODERN  TIMES. 

1800-1850. 

Ruling  Ideas;   Theory  of  the  Spontaneous  in  Poetry. 

As  no  summary  which  our  limits  would  permit  us  to 
give  of  the  political  events  between  1800  and  1850 
could  add  materially  to  the  student's  knowledge  respect- 
ing a  period  so  recent,  we  shall  omit  here  the  historical 
sketch  which  we  prefixed  to  each  of  the  two  preceding 
chapters. 

At  once,  from  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
we  meet  with  originality  and  with  energetic  convictions. 
The  deepest  problems  are  sounded  with  the  utmost  free- 
dom :  decorum  gives  place  to  earnestness ;  and  principles 
are  mutually  confronted,  instead  of  forms.  We  speak 
of  England  only :  the  change  to  which  we  refer  set  in 
at  an  earlier  period  in  France  and  Germany.  In  the 
main,  the  chief  pervading  movement  of  society  may  be 
described  as  one  of  re-action  against  the  ideas  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Those  ideas  were,  in  brief,  ration- 
alism and  formalism,  both  in  literature  and  in  politics. 
Pope,  for  instance,  was  a  rationalist,  and  also  a  formalist, 
in  both  respects.  In  his  views  of  society,  he  took  the 
excellence  of  no  institution  for  granted  ;  he  would  not 
admit  that  antiquity  in  itself  constituted  a  claim  to 
reverence :  on  the  contrary,  his  turn  of  mind  disposed 


MODERN  TIMES.  303 

him  to  try  all  things,  old  and  new,  by  the  test  of  their 
rationality,  and  to  ridicule  the  multiplicity  of  forms  and 
usages  —  some  marking  ideas  originally  irrational,  others 
whose  meaning,  once  clear  and  true,  had  been  lost  or 
obscured  through  the  change  of  circumstances  —  which 
encumbered  the  public  life  of  his  time.  Yet  he  was, 
at  the  same  time,  a  political  formalist  in  this  sense,  that 
he  desired  no  sweeping  changes,  and  was  quite  content 
that  the  social  system  should  work  on  as  it  was.  It 
suited  him  ;  and  that  was  enough  for  his  somewhat 
selfish  philosophy.  Again:  in  literature  he  was  a 
rationalist,  and  also  a  formalist;  but  here  in  a  good 
sense.  For  in  literary,  as  in  all  other  art,  the  form  is  of 
prime  importance  ;  and  his  destructive  logic,  while  it 
crushed  bad  forms,  bound  him  to  develop  his  powers 
in  strict  conformity  to  good  ones.  Now,  the  reaction 
against  these  ideas  was  twofold.  The  conservative 
re-action  —  while  it  pleaded  the  claims  of  prescription, 
denounced  the  aberrations  of  reason,  and.  endeavored  to 
vindicate  or  resuscitate  the  ideas  lying  at  the  base  of 
existing  political  society,  which  the  rationalism  of  the 
eighteenth  century  had  sapped  —  rebelled  at  the  same 
time  against  the  arbitrary  rules  with  which  not  Pope 
himself,  but  his  followers,  had  fettered  literature.  The 
liberal,  or  revolutionary  re-action,  while,  accepting  the 
destructive  rationalism  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
scouted  its  political  formalism  as  weak  and  inconsistent, 
joined  the  conservative  school  in  rebelling  against  the 
reign  of  the  arbitrary  and  the  formal  in  literature.  This, 
then,  is  the  point  of  contact  between  Scott  and  the  con- 
servative school  on  the  one  hand,  and  Coleridge,  Godwin, 
Byron,  Shelley,  and  the  rest  of  the  revolutionary  school, 
on  the  other.  They  were  all  agreed  that  literature,  and 
especially  poetry,  was  becoming  a  cold,  lifeless  affair, 
conforming  to  all  the  rules  and  proprieties,  but  divorced 


304  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

from  living  nature,  and  the  warm  spontaneity  of  the 
heart.  They  imagined  that  the  extravagant  and  exclu- 
sive admiration  of  the  classical  models  had  occasioned 
this  mischief;  and  fixing  their  eyes  on  the  rude  yet 
grand  beginnings  of  modern  society,  which  the  specta- 
cle of  the  feudal  ages  presented  to  them,  they  thought 
that  by  imbuing  themselves  with  the  spirit  of  romance 
and  chivalry,  by  coming  into  moral  contact  with  the 
robust  faith  and  energetic  passions  of  a  race  not  yet 
sophisticated  by  civilization,  they  would  wake  up 
within  themselves  the  great  original  forces  of  the 
human  spirit,  —  forces  which,  once  set  in  motion,  would 
develop  congenial  literary  forms,  produced  not  by  the 
labor  limce,  but  by  a  true  inspiration. 

Especially  in  poetry  was  this  the  case.  To  the  artifi- 
cial, mechanical,  didactic  school,  which  Pope's  successors 
had  made  intolerable,  was  now  opposed  a  counter  theory 
of  the  poetic  function,  which  we  may  call  the  theory  of 
the  spontaneous.  As  light  flows  from  the  stars,  or  per- 
fume from  flowers,  as  the  nightingale  cannot  help 
singing,  nor  the  bee  refrain  from  making  honey,  —  so, 
according  to  this  theory,  poetry  is  the  spontaneous 
emanation  of  a  musical  and  beautiful  soul.  "  The  poet 
is  born,  and  is  not  made  ;  "  and  so  is  it  with  his  poetry. 
To  pretend  to  construct  a  beautiful  poem,  is  as  if  one 
were  to  try  to  construct  a  tree :  something  dead  and 
wooden  will  be  the  result  in  either  case.  In  a  poet, 
effort  is  tantamount  to  condemnation;  for  it  implies 
the  absence  of  inspiration.  For  the  same  reason,  to  be 
consciously  didactic  is  incompatible  with  the  true  poetic 
gift.  For  whatever  of  great  value  comes  from  a  poet 
is  not  that  which  he  wills  to  say,  but  that  which  he 
cannot  help  saying ;  that  which  some  higher  power  — 
call  it  Nature  or  what  you  will  —  dictates  through  his 
lips  as  through  an  oracle. 


MODERN   TIMES.  305 

This  theory,  which  certainly  had  many  attractions, 
and  contained  much  truth,  led  to  various  important 
results.  It  drove  away  from  Helicon  many  versifiers 
who  had  no  business  there,  by  depriving  them  of  an 
audience.  The  Beatties,  Akensides,  Youngs,  and  Dar- 
wins,  who  had  inflicted  their  dulness  on  the  last  century 
under  the  impression  that  it  was  poetry,  —  a  delusion 
shared  by  their  readers,  — had  to  "  pale  their  ineffectual 
fire,"  and  decamp,  when  their  soporific  productions  were 
confronted  with  the  startling  and  direct  utterances  of 
the  disciples  of  the  spontaneous.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  theory  produced  new  mischiefs,  and  generated  new 
mistakes.  It  did  not  silence  inferior  poets ;  but  they 
were  of  a  different  class  from  what  they  had  been 
before.  It  was  not  now  the  moralist  or  the  dabbler  in 
philosophy,  who,  imagining  himself  to  have  important 
information  to  convey  to  mankind,  and  aiming  at 
delighting  while  he  instructed,  constructed  his  epic, 
or  ode,  or  metrical  essay,  as  the  medium  of  communi- 
cation. It  was  rather  the  man  gifted  with  a  fatal  facility 
of  rhyme,  with  a  mind  teeming  with  trivial  thoughts 
and  corresponding  words,  who  was  misled  by  the  new 
theory  into  confounding  the  rapidity  of  his  conceptions 
with  the  spontaneity  of  genius,  and  into  thinking  revis- 
ion or  curtailment  of  them  a  kind  of  treason  to  the 
divine  afflatus.  Such  writers  generally  produced  two 
or  three  pretty  pieces,  written  at  their  brightest 
moments,  amidst  a  miscellaneous  heap  of  "  fugitive 
poems  "  —  rightly  so  called  —  which  were  good  for  little 
or  nothing.  Upon  real  genius  the  theory  acted  both 
for  good  and  for  evil.  Social  success,  upon  which  even 
the  best  poets  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  set-  the 
highest  value,  was  despised  by  the  higher  minds  of 
the  new  school.  They  loved  to  commune  with  nature 
and  their  own  souls  in  solitude,  believing  that  here  was, 

26* 


306  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

the  source  of  true  poetic  inspiration.  The  resulting 
forms  were,  so  far  as  they  went,  most  beautiful  and 
faultless  in  art ;  they  were  worthy  of  the  profound  and 
beautiful  thoughts  which  they  embodied.  In  diction, 
rhythm,  proportion,  melody,  —  in  every  thing,  in  short, 
that  constitutes  beauty  of  form,  —  no  poems  ever  com- 
posed attained  to  greater  perfection  than  Shelley's 
"  Skylark  "  or  Keats's  "  Hyperion."  Yet  these  forms, 
after  all,  were  not  of  the  highest  order.  The  judgment 
of  many  generations  has  assigned  the  palm  of  superiority 
among  poetic  forms  to  the  Epos  and  the  Drama ;  yet  in 
neither  of  these  did  the  school  of  poets  of  which  we 
speak  achieve  any  success  of  moment.  This  was  prob- 
ably due  to  the  influence  of  the  theory  which  we  are 
considering.  The  truth  is,  that  no  extensive  and  com- 
plex poem  was  ever  composed  without  large  help  from 
that  constructive  faculty,  which  it  was  the  object  of 
the  theory  to  depreciate.  Even  Shakspeare,  whom  it 
is  — or  was — the  fashion  to  consider  as  a  wild,  irregular 
poet,  writing  from  impulse,  and  careless  of  art,  is  known 
to  have  carefully  altered  and  re-arranged  some  of  his 
plays,  "  Hamlet,"  for  instance,  and  by  so  doing  to  have 
greatly  raised  their  poetic  value.  Virgil,  Tasso,  Dante, 
must  all  have  expended  a  great  amount  of  dry  intel- 
lectual labor  upon  their  respective  masterpieces,  in 
order  to  harmonize  the  parts  and  perfect  the  forms  of 
expression.  The  bright  moments  are  transitory,  even 
with  minds  endowed  with  the  highest  order  of  imagi- 
nation ;  but,  by  means  of  this  labor,  — 

"  Tasks  in  hours  of  insight  willed 
May  be  in  hours  of  gloom  fulfilled." 

But  this  truth  was  obscured,  or  but  dimly  visible,  to 
minds  which  viewed  poetry  in  the  light  we  have 
Described.  Even  Scott  —  true  worker  though  he  was 


MODERN  TIMES.  307 

—  may  be  held  to  have  produced  poems  not  commen- 
surate with  the  power  that  was  in  him,  owing  to  a 
want  of  due  pains  in  construction,  attributable  to  the 
influence  of  the  prevalent  ideas. 

Poetry :    Sir  Walter  Scott,  Keats,  Shelley,  Byron,   Crabbe,  Cole- 
ridge, Southey,  Campbell,  Wordsworth,  Hood,  Hogg,  &c. 

"  The  Life  of  Scott,"  edited  by  his  son-in-law  Lock- 
hart,  opens  with  a  remarkable  fragment  of  autobiogra- 
phy. Unhappily,  it  extends  to  no  more  than  sixty 
pages,  and  conducts  us  and  the  writer  only  to  the 
epoch  where,  his  education  being  finished,  he  was  about 
to  launch  forth  into  the  world ;  but  these  few  manly 
and  modest  pages  contain  a  record  of  the  early  years 
of  a  great  life,  which  cannot  easily  be  matched  in 
interest.  Scott  was  born  at  Edinburgh  on  the  15th 
August,  1771.  His  father,  descended  from  the  border 
family,  or  clan,  of  Scott,  of  which  the  chieftain  was  the 
Duke  of  Buccleuch,  was  a  writer  to  the  signet ;  that  is, 
a  solicitor  belonging  to  the  highest  branch  of  his  pro- 
fession. A  lameness  in  the  right  leg,  first  contracted 
when  he  was  eighteen  months  old,  was  the  cause  of  his 
being  sent  away  to  pass  in  the  country  many  of  those 
years  which  most  boys  pass  at  school.  He  was  fond  of 
reading ;  and  the  books  which  touched  his  fancy  or  his 
feelings  made  an  indelible  impression  on  him.  Forty 
years  later,  he  remembered  the  deep  delight  with  which, 
at  the  age  of  thirteen,  stretched  under  a  plane-tree  in  a 
garden  sloping  down  to  the  Tweed  at  Kelso,  he  had 
first  read  Percy's  "  Reliques  of  Ancient  Poetry." 
"  From  this  time,"  he  says,  "  the  love  of  natural 
beauty,  more  especially  when  combined  with  ancient 
ruins,  or  the  remains  of  our  fathers'  piety  or  splendor, 
became  with  me  an  insatiable  passion,  which,  if  cir- 
cumstances had  permitted,  I  would  willingly  have  grati- 


308  HISTOKY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

fied  by  travelling  over  half  the  globe."  When  he  was 
nineteen  years  old,  his  father  gave  him  his  choice, 
whether  to  adopt  his  own  profession,  or  to  be  called  to 
the  bar.  Scott  preferred  the  latter;  he  studied  the 
Scotch  law  with  that  conscientious  and  cheerful  dili- 
gence which  distinguished  him  through  life,  and  began 
to  practise  as  an  advocate  in  1792,  with  fair  prospects 
of  professional  success.  But  the  bent  of  nature  was 
too  strong  for  him :  literature  engrossed  more  and  more 
of  his  time  and  thoughts ;  and  his  first  publication,  in 
1796,  of  translations  of  "  Lenore,"  and  other  German 
poems  by  Burger,  was  soon  followed  by  various  contri- 
butions to  Lewis's  "  Tales  of  Wonder,"  and  by  the  com- 
pilation of  "  The  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Border," 
many  pieces  in  which  are  original,  in  the  year  1802.  In 
1797  he  had  married  Charlotte  Carpenter  (or  Charpen- 
tier),  and  settled  at  Lasswade  on  the  Esk,  near  "  classic 
Hawthornden."  Foreseeing  that  he  would  never  suc- 
ceed at  the  bar,  he  obtained  in  1799,  through  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch,  the  appointment  of 
sheriff  of  Selkirkshire,  to  which,  in  1806,  was  added  a 
clerkship  in  the  Court  of  Session,  with  a  salary  of 
thirteen  hundred  pounds  a  year.  Both  these  appoint- 
ments, which  involved  magisterial  and  official  duties  of 
a  rather  burdensome  nature,  always  punctually  and 
conscientiously  discharged,  Scott  held  till  within  a  year 
before  his  death. 

A  mind  so  active  and  powerful  as  that  of  Scott  could 
not  remain  unaffected  by  the  wild  ferment  of  spirits 
caused  by  the  breaking-out  of  the  French  Revolution ; 
but,  in  the  main,  the  foundations  of  his  moral  and 
spiritual  being  remained  unshaken  by  those  tempests. 
His  robust  common-sense  taught  him  to  attend  to  his 
own  business,  in  preference  to  devoting  himself  to  the 
universal  interests  of  mankind ;  and  his  love  of  what 


MODERN   TIMES.  309 

was  ancient,  and  possessed  historic  fame,  his  fondness 
for  local  and  family  traditions,  and  the  predilection 
which  he  had  for  the  manners  and  ideas  of  the  days  of 
chivalry,  made  the  levelling  doctrines  of  the  Revolu- 
tion especially  hateful  to  him.  It  was  otherwise  with 
most  of  the  poets,  his  contemporaries.  Wordsworth, 
after  taking  his  degree  at  Cambridge  in  1791, —  a 
ceremony  for  which  he  showed  his  contempt  by  devot- 
ing the  preceding  week  to  the  perusal  of  "  Clarissa 
Harlowe,"  —  went  over  to  France  ;  and,  during  a  resi- 
dence there  of  thirteen  months,  formed  an  intimacy 
with  Beaupuis  a  Girondist  general,  and  with  many  of 
the  Brissotins  at  Paris.  Southey,  upon  whose  smaller 
brain  and  livelier  temperament  the  French  ideals  acted 
so  powerfully  as  to  throw  him  completely  off  his  bal- 
ance, wrote  the  dramatic  sketch  of  "  Wat  Tyler  "  —  a 
highly  explosive  and  seditious  production  —  while  at 
Oxford  in  1794,  and  for  some  time  seriously  contem- 
plated joining  Coleridge  in  establishing  a  Pantisocratic 
community  "  on  the  banks  of  the  Susquehanna."  Cole- 
ridge, whose  teeming  brain  produced  in  later  life  so 
many  systems,  or  fragments  of  systems,  was  in  1794 
full  of  his  wonderful  scheme  of  "  Pantisocracy,"  an 
anticipation  of  the  phalamteres  of  Fourier,  and  the 
Icaria  of  Cabet.  In  his  ode  to  "Fire,  Famine,  and 
Slaughter,"  published  in  1798,  the  Jacobin  poet  dis- 
charges the  full  vials  of  his  wrath  on  Mr.  Pitt,  as  the 
chief  opponent  of  the  progress  of  revolution.  The 
three  weird  sisters,  after  expressing  their  deep  obliga- 
tions to  the  British  statesman,  exchange  ideas  on  the 
subject  of  the  best  mode  of  rewarding  him.  Famine 
will  gnaw  the  multitude  till  they  "  seize  him  and  his 
brood ;  "  Slaughter  will  make  them  "  tear  him  limb 
from  limb."  But  Fire  taxes  their  gratitude  with  pov- 
erty of  resource :  — 


310  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

"  And  is  this  all  "that  you  can  do 
For  him  who  did  so  much  for  you  ? 


I  alone  am  faithful ;  I 
Cling  to  him  everlastingly." 

In  1804  Scott  removed  to  Ashestiel,  a  house  overlook- 
ing the  Tweed,  near  Selkirk,  for  the  more  convenient 
discharge  of  his  magisterial  duties.  The  locale  is  brought 
picturesquely  before  us  in  the  introduction  to  the  first 
canto  of  "  Marmioii :  "  — 

"  Late,  gazing  down  the  steepy  linn, 
That  hems  our  little  garden  in, 
Low  in  its  dark  and  narrow  glen, 
You  scarce  the  rivulet  might  ken, 
So  thick  the  tangled  greenwood  grew, 
So  feeble  trilled  the  streamlet  through : 
Now  murmuring  hoarse,  and  frequent  seen 
Through  bush  and  brier,  no  longer  green, 
An  angry  brook,  it  sweeps  the  glade, 
Brawls  over  rock  and  wild  cascade, 
And,  foaming  brown  with  double  speed, 
Hurries  its  waters  to  the  Tweed." 

Early  in  1805  appeared  "  The  Lay  of  the  Last  Min- 
strel," the  first  of  the  series  of  Scott's  romantic  poems. 
Its  composition  was  due  to  a  suggestion  of  the  beautiful 
Duchess  of  Buccleuch,  who,  upon  hearing  for  the  first 
time  the  wild  border  legend  of  Gilpin  Horner,  turned 
to  Scott,  and  said,  "  Why  not  embody  it  in  a  poem  ?  " 
The  "  Lay  "  at  once  obtained  a  prodigious  popularity.1 
"  Marmion  "  was  published  in  1808,  and  severely  criti- 
cised soon  after  by  Jeffrey  in  "  The  Edinburgh  Review." 
Scott's  soreness  under  the  infliction,  united  to  his  grow- 
ing aversion  for  the  politics  of  the  "  Edinburgh,"  led 
him  to  concentrate  all  his  energies  upon  the  establish- 
ment of  a  rival  review ;  and  the  "  Quarterly  "  was  ac- 
cordingly set  on  foot  in  1809.  "  The  Lady  of  the  Lake  " 
appeared  in  1810.2  Of  these  three  poems  Lockhart 
1  See  pp.  393,  434.  2  See  p.  394. 


MODERN   TIMES.  311 

says,  "  The  4  Lay '  is  generally  considered  as  the  most 
natural  and  original,  '  Marmion  '  as  the  most  powerful 
and  splendid,  and  4  The  Lady  of  the  Lake  '  as  the  most 
interesting,  romantic,  picturesque,  and  graceful."  The 
"  Lay,"  however,  was  not  entirely  original.  Scott  him- 
self, in  the  preface  to  the  edition  of  1829,  acknowledges 
the  obligation  under  which  he  lay  to  Coleridge's  poem 
of  "  Christabel."  This  striking  fragment,  he  says, 
"  from  the  singularly  irregular  structure  of  the  stanzas, 
and  the  liberty  which  it  allows  the  author  to  adapt  the 
sound  to  the  sense,  seemed  to  me  exactly  suited  to  such 
an  extravaganza  as  I  meditated  on  the  subject  of  Gilpin 
Horner.  ...  It  was  in  4  Christabel '  that  I  first  found 
[this  measure]  used  in  serious  poetry ;  and  it  is  to  Mr. 
Coleridge  that  I  am  bound  to  make  the  acknowledg- 
ment due  from  the  pupil  to  his  master. ' 

His  other  romantic  poems,  "  The  Vision  of  Don 
Roderick,"  "  Rokeby,"  "  The  Lord  of  the  Isles,"  "  The 
Bridal  of  Triermain,"  and  "  Harold  the  Dauntless,"  all 
published  between  1811  and  1817,  manifest  a  progress- 
ive declension.  Scott  was  heartily  tired  of  "  Harold  " 
before  it  was  finished,  and  worked  off  the.  concluding 
portion  in  an  agony  of  impatience  and  dissatisfaction. 
When  asked,  some  years  later,  why  he  had  given  up 
writing  poetry,  he  simply  said,  "  Because  Byron  let 
me."  Byron  had  returned  from  his  long  ramble  over 
the  coasts  and  islands  of  the  Mediterranean  in  1811 , 
and  in  the  course  of  the  five  following  years  he  pub- 
lished his  Oriental  tales,  —  "The  Bride  of  Abydos," 
44 The  Giaour,"  "The  Siege  of  Corinth,"  "  The  Corsair,"  J 
44  Lara,"  and  "  Parisina,"  which,  by  their  highly  colored 
scenes  and  impassioned  sentiment,  made  Scott's  poetry 
appear  by  comparison  tame  and  pale.  Writing  to  the 
Countess  Purgstall  in  1821,  he  says,  "  In  truth,  I  have 

i  See  p.  395. 


312  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

given  up  poetry ;  .  .  .•  besides,  I  felt  the  prudence  of 
giving  way  before  the  more  forcible  and  powerful  genius 
of  Byron  ;  "  and  would  moreover,  he  adds,  hesitate  "  to 
exhibit  in  my  own  person  the  sublime  attitude  of  the 
Dying  Gladiator ;  "  alluding  to  the  well-known  passage 
in  "  Childe  Harold." 

But  in  1814  Scott  struck  out  a  new  path,  in  which 
neither  Byron  nor  any  other  living  man  could  keep 
pace  with  him.  Ransacking  an  old  cabinet,  he  hap- 
pened one  day,  in  the  spring  of  that  year,  to  lay  his 
hand  on  an  old,  unfinished  manuscript,  containing  a 
fragment  of  a  tale  on  the  rising  of  the  clans  in  1745, 
which  he  had  written  some  years  before,  but,  feeling 
dissatisfied  with,  had  put  by.  He  now  read  it  over,  and 
thought  that  something  could  be  made  of  it.  He  fin- 
ished the  tale  in  six  weeks,  and  published  it  anonymously, 
under  the  title  of  fct  Waverley;  or,  A  Tale  of  Sixty  Years 
Since."  The  impression  which  it  created  was  prodigious. 
41  Waverley  "  was  soon  followed  by  "  Guy  Manriering  " 
and  "  The  Antiquary."  Between  1816  and  1826  ap- 
peared seventeen  other  novels  from  the  same  practised 
hand.  But  it  was  Scott's  humor  still  to  preserve  the 
anonymous;  and,  though  many  literary  men  felt  all 
along  a  moral  certainty  that  the  author  of  "  Waverley  " 
was,  and  could  be,  no  other  than  the  author  of  "  Mar- 
mion,"  and  Mr.  Adolphus  wrote  in  1820  an  extremely 
ingenious  pamphlet l  establishing  the  identity  of  the 
two  almost  to  demonstration,  yet  the  public  had  been 
so  mystified,  that  it  was  not  till  the  occasion  of  a 
public  dinner  at  Edinburgh,  in  1827,  when  Scott  made 
a  formal  avowal  of  his  responsibility  as  the  author  of 
the  entire  series,2  that  all  uncertainty  was  removed. 

The  noble  and  generous  nature  of  Scott  nowhere 
appears  more  conspicuously  than  in  the  history  of  his 

1  Letters  on  the  Authorship  of  Waverley.  2  See  p.  460. 


MODERN  TIMES.  313 

relations  with  the  other  eminent  poets  of  his  time. 
Byron,  stung  by  the  unsparing  criticisms  to  which  Jef- 
frey subjected  his  youthful  effusions l  in  "  The  Edin- 
burgh Review,"  had  replied  by  his  "  English  Bards  and 
Scotch  Reviewers,2"  in  which,  including  Scott  among 
the  poets  of  the  Lake  School,  he  had  made  him  the 
object  of  a  petulant  and  unfounded  invective.  Scott- 
alludes  to  this  attack  from  the  "young  whelp  of  a 
lord  "  in  many  of  his  letters,  but  evidently  without  the 
slightest  feeling  of  bitterness.  When  he  visited  Lon- 
don in  the  spring  of  1815,  and  was  enthusiastically 
received  by  the  generation,  just  grown  to  manhood, 
which  had  been  fed  by  his  verse,  he  became  acquainted 
with  Byron ;  and  their  mutual  liking  was  so  strong  that 
the  acquaintance  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  almost 
grew  into  intimacy.  They  met  for  the  last  time  in  the 
autumn  of  the  same  year,  after  Scott's  return  from 
Waterloo.  Of  Coleridge,  Scott  always  spoke  with 
interest  and  admiration,  and  endeavored  to  serve  him 
more  than  once.  With  Southey  he  kept  up  a  pretty 
constant  correspondence ;  and,  besides  serving  him  in 
other  ways,  procured  the  laureateship  for  him  in  1813, 
after  having  declined  it  for  himself.  Towards  Hogg, 
the  Ettrick  shepherd,  whose  touchy  and  irritable  pride 
would  have  provoked  any  less  generous  patron,  his 
kindness  was  unvarying  and  indefatigable.  With 
Moore  he  became  acquainted  on  the  occasion  of  his 
visit  to  Ireland  in  1825,  and  received  him  at  Abbots- 
ford  later  in  the  same  year.  The  Irish  poet  made  a 
very  favorable  impression.  Scott  says  in  his  diary, 
"  There  is  a  manly  frankness,  with  perfect  ease  and 
good-breeding,  about  him,  which  is  delightful  ;  not 
the  least  touch  of  the  poet  or  the  pedant.  A  little, 
very  little  man,  .  .  .  but  not  insignificant  like  Lewis. 

1  The  "  Hours  of  Idleness."  a  See  p.  413. 

•27 


314  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

.  .  .  His  countenance  is  plain  but  expressive  ;  so  very 
animated,  especially  in  speaking  or  singing,  that  it  is 
far  more  interesting  than  the  finest  features  could  have 
made  it."  Of  Scott's  intercourse  with  Sir  Humphrey 
Davy,  —  himself  a  thorough  poet  in  nature,  —  Lockhart 
relates  an  amusing  anecdote :  "  Scott,  Davy,  the  biog- 
rapher, and  a  rough  Scotch  friend  of  Sir  Walter's 
named  Laidlaw,  were  together  in  Abbotsford  in  1820  j 
the  two  latter  being  silent  and  admiring  listeners  during 
the  splendid  colloquies  of  the  poet  and  the  philosopher. 
At  last  Laidlaw  broke  out  with,  '  Gude  preserve  us ! 
this  is  a  very  superior  occasion.  Eh,  sirs !  I  wonder 
if  Shakspeare  and  Bacon  ever  met  to  screw  ilk  other 
up!" 

In  1826  occurred  the  crash  of  Scott's  fortunes, 
through  the  failure  of  the  houses  of  Constable  and 
Ballantyne.  With  the  Ballantynes,  who  were  printers, 
Scott  had  been  in  partnership  since  1805,  though  even 
his  dearest  friends  were  ignorant  of  the  fact.  How 
bravely  he  bore  himself  in  the  midst  of  the  utter  ruin 
which  came  upon  him,  how  strenuously  he  applied  his 
wonderful  powers  of  thought  and  work  to  the  task  of 
retrieving  his  position,  how  he  struggled  on  till 
health,  faculties,  and  life  itself  gave  way  —  these  are 
matters  which  belong  to  the  story  of  the  man,  rather 
than  the  author.  The  novels  and  other  works  com- 
posed between  1826  and  his  death  in  1832,  though  they 
fill  very  many  volumes,  manifest  a  progressive  decline 
of  power.  "  Woodstock "  was  in  preparation  at  the 
time  when  the  stroke  came ;  but  there  is  no  falling-off 
in  the  concluding  portion,  such  as  might  tell  of  the 
agonies  of  mind  through  which  the  writer  was  passing. 
To  "  Woodstock,"  however,  succeeded  "  Anne  of 
Geierstein,"  the  "  Fair  Maid  of  Perth,"  "  Count  Robert 
of  Paris,"  and  "  Castle  Dangerous,"  all  of  which,  or  at 


MODERN   TIMES.  315 

any  rate  the  last  two,  betoken  a  gradual  obscuration 
and  failure  of  the  powers  of  imagination  and  invention. 
In  1827  he  published  a  "  Life  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte." 
A  work  on  "  Demonology  and  Witchcraft,"  and  "  The 
Tales  of  a  Grandfather,"  nearly  complete  the  list.  In 
the  summer  of  1832  he  visited  Italy  in  a  frigate  which 
the  Government  placed  at  his  disposal,  to  recruit,  if 
that  were  possible,  the  vital  energies  of  a  frame,  which, 
massive  and  muscular  as  was  the  mould  in  which  nature 
had  cast  it,  was  now  undermined  and  worn  out  by  care 
and  excessive  toil.  But  it  was  too  late ;  and,  feeling 
that  the  end  was  near,  Scott  hurried  homewards  to 
breathe  his  last  in  his  beloved  native  land.  After  grad- 
ually sinking  for  two  months,  he  expired  at  Abbotsford, 
in  the  midst  of  his  children,  on  the  afternoon  of  a  calm 
September  day  in  1832. 

We  proceed  to  name  the  principal  works  of  the  other 
poets,  mentioning  them  in  the  order  of  their  deaths. 

Keats  in  his  short  life  contributed  many  noble  com- 
positions to  English  poetry.  His  soul  thirsted  for 
beauty ;  his  creed,  the  substance  of  his  religion,  was,  — 

"  That  first  in  beauty  should  be  first  in  might."  l 

But  he  was  poor,  of  mean  origin,  weak  in  health,  scan- 
tily befriended.  He  could  not  always  shut  out  the 
external  world  with  its  hard,  unlovely  realities.  Like 
Mulciber,  who 

"  Dropt  from  the  zenith  like  a  falling  star 
On  Lemnos,  the  JSgean  isle,"  — 

he  was  sometimes  driven  out  of  the  heaven  of  imagina- 
tion ;  and  then  he  fell  at  once  into  the  depths  of  dejec- 
tion. He  died  in  his  twenty-seventh  year,  and  wished 
his  epitaph  to  be,  "  Here  lies  one  whose  name  was  writ 
1  From  Hyperion. 


316  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITER ATUEE. 

in  water."  His  first  work,  "  Endymion,"  and  his  last, 
"  Hyperion,"  may  be  regarded,  the  former  as  an  expan- 
sion, the  latter  as  an  interpretation,  of  portions  of  the 
mythology  of  Greece.  "  Hyperion  "  is  a  fragment ;  in 
it  the  sublimity  of  the  colossal  shapes  of  the  Titans, 
contrasted  with  the  glorious  beauty  of  the  younger 
gods,  bespeaks  an  imagination  worthy  of  Dante.  The 
"  Eve  of  St.  Agnes  "  belongs  to  a  different  vein  of 
ideas ;  the  legends  and  superstitions  of  the  middle  age 
furnish  its  subject  and  its  coloring. 

Percy  Bysshe  Shelley,  born  in  1792,  embraced  with 
fervor,  even  from  his  schoolboy  days,  both  the  destruc- 
tive and  the  constructive  ideas  of  the  revolutionary 
school.  He  was  enthusiastically  convinced  that  the 
great  majority  of  mankind  was,  and  with  trifling  ex- 
ceptions had  always  been,  enslaved  by  custom,  by  low 
material  thoughts,  by  tyranny,  and  by  superstition; 
and  he  no  less  fervently  believed  in  the  perfectibility  of 
the  individual  and  of  society,  as  the  result  of  the  burst- 
ing of  these  bonds,  and  of  a  philosophical  and  philan- 
thropic system  of  education.  "  Queen  Mab,"  written 
when  he  was  eighteen,  but  never  published  with  his 
consent,  represents  the  revolutionary  fever  when  at  its 
utmost  heat.  The  court,  the  camp,  the  state,  the 
Church,  all  are  incurably  corrupt.  Faith  is  the  clinging 
curse  which  poisons  the  cup  of  human  happiness  :  when 
that  is  torn  up  by  the  roots,  and  all  institutions  now  in 
being  have  been  abolished,  then  earth  may  become  the 
"  reality  of  heaven ; "  there  will  then  be  free  scope  for 
the  dominion  of  love,  and  reason  and  passion  will  de- 
sist from  their  long  combat.  The  metre  is  rhymeless 
and  irregular ;  .but  there  are  bursts  of  eloquent  rushing 
verse,  which  for  soul-fraught  music  cannot  be  sur- 
passed. "  The  Revolt  of  Islam "  (1817),  a  poem  in 
twelve  cantos,  in  the  Spenserian  stanza,  though  it  has 


MODERN  TIMES.  317 

most  beautiful  passages,  fails  to  rivet  the  interest 
through  insufficiency  of  plot.  It,  too,  has  for  its  general 
drift  the  utter  corruption  and  rottenness  of  all  that  is, 
involving  the  necessity,  for  a  nation  that  desired  truly 
to  live,  of  breaking  the  chains  of  faith  and  custom  by 
which  it  was  held.  "  Peter  Bell  the  Third  "  (1819)  is 
a  satirical  attack  upon  Wordsworth,  who  had  grown,  in 
Shelley's  opinion,  far  too  conservative.  To  a  mind  like 
Shelley's  it  may  be  conceived  how  great  was  the  attrac- 
tion of  the  story  of  Prometheus,  the  great  Titan  who 
rebelled  against  the  gods.  To  this  attraction  we  owe 
the  drama  of  "  Prometheus  Unbound."  His  tragedy 
of  "  The  Cenci,"  written  at  Rome  in  1820,  shows  great 
dramatic  power ;  but  the  nature  of  the  story  renders  it 
impossible  that  it  should  be  represented  on  the  stage. 
The  lyrical  drama  of  "  Hellas,"  written  in  1821,  was 
suggested  by  the  efforts  which  the  insurgent  Greeks 
were  then  making  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  their  Turk- 
ish tyrants.1  "  Adonais  "  is  a  wonderfully  beautiful 
elegy  on  his  friend  Keats.  The  "  Masque  of  Anarchy  " 
(1819)  was  written  upon  the  news  reaching  him  of 
what  has  been  called  the  "  Manchester  Massacre." 
"  Epipsychidion  "  (1821)  is  very  lovely,  but  obscure. 
These  are  nearly  all  the  longer  poems.  It  is  by  his 
shorter  pieces  that  Shelley  is  best  known,  — "  The 
Cloud,"  "  To  a  Skylark,"  "  The  Sensitive  Plant,  "  Stan- 
zas written  in  Dejection  near  Naples,"  and  many  others; 
in  which  that  quality  of  ethereal  and  all-transmuting 
imagination,  which  especially  distinguishes  him  from 
other  poets,  is  most  conspicuous.  Having  lived  the  last 
four  years  of  his  life  in  Italy,  Shelley  met  with  a  pre- 
mature death  by  drowning,  in  the  Gulf  of  Spezzia,  in 
the  year  1822. 
Byron  represents  the  universal  re-action  of  the  nine- 

1  See  p.  436. 
27* 


318  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

teenth  century  against  the  ideas  of  the  eighteenth. 
We  have  seen  the  literary  re-action  exemplified  in 
Scott ;  but  the  protest  of  Byron  was  more  comprehen- 
sive, and  reached  to  deeper  regions  of  thought.  Moody 
and  misanthropical,  he  rejected  the  whole  manner  of 
thought  of  his  predecessors ;  and  the  scepticism  of  the 
eighteenth  century  suited  him  as  little  as  its  popular 
belief.  Unbelievers  of  the  class  of  Hume  and  Gibbon 
did  not  suffer  on  account  of  being  without  faith :  their 
turn  of  mind  was  Epicurean ;  the  world  of  sense  and 
intelligence  furnished  them  with  as  much  of  enjoyment 
as  they  required ;  and  they  had  no  quarrel  with  the 
social  order  which  secured  to  them  the  tranquil  posses- 
sion of  their  daily  pleasures.  But  Byron  had  a  mind 
of  that  daring  and  impetuous  temper  which,  while  it 
rushes  into  the  path  of  doubt  suggested  by  cooler  heads, 
presently  recoils  from  the  consequences  of  its  own  act, 
and  shudders  at  the  moral  desolation  which  scepticism 
spreads  over  its  life.  He  proclaimed  to  the  world  his 
misery  and  despair ;  and  everywhere  his  words  seemed 
to  touch  a  sympathetic  chord  throughout  the  cultivated 
society  of  Europe.  In  "  Childe  Harold"  — a  poem  of 
reflection  and  sentiment,  of  which  the  first  two  cantos 
were  published  in  1812  —  and  also  in  the  dramas  of 
"  Manfred"  and  "Cain,"  the  peculiar  characteristics  of 
Byron's  genius  are  most  forcibly  represented. 

In  these  poems,  and  also  in  those  mentioned  on  a 
former  page,1  —  besides  the  splendor  of  the  diction,  the 
beauty  of  the  versification,  the  richness  of  the  unaccus- 
tomed imagery,  and  in  some  cases  the  interest  of  the 
narrative,  —  a  personal  element  mingled,  which  must  be 
noticed  as  having  much  to  do  with  the  hold  they  ob- 
tained upon  readers  of  all  nations.  Byron  was  generally 
supposed  to  be  — 

"  Himself  the  great  sublime  he  drew." 
1  See  p.  311. 


MODERN  TIMES.  319 

In  Conrad,  or  in  Hugo,  or  in  Lara,  the  reader  thought 
he  could  trace  the  unconquerable  pride,  the  romantic 
gloom,  nay,  even  some  portion  of  the  exterior  sem- 
blance, of  the  man  whom,  in  spite  of  protestations,  all 
the  world  believed  to  have  drawn  his  own  portrait  in 
Childe  Harold.  The  turbulent,  haughty,  passionate, 
imperial  soul  of  Byron  seemed  to  breathe  forth  from 
the  page ;  and  this  was  and  still  is  the  secret  of  its 
charm. 

The  "  Hours  of  Idleness,"  his  first  work,  written  in 
1807  when  he  was  but  nineteen,  are  poems  truly  juve- 
nile, and  show  little  promise  of  the  power  and  versatility 
to  which  his  mind  afterwards  attained.  The  satire  of 
"English  Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers,"  already  referred 
to,  was  written  in  1809.  All  the  leading  poets  of  the 
day  came  under  the  lash;  but  to  all  except  Southey 
he  subsequently  made  the  amende  honorable  in  some 
way  or  other.  With  the  laureate  he  was  never  on  good 
terms  ;  and  their  mutual  dislike  broke  out  at  various 
times  into  furious  discord.  Byron  could  not  forgive  in 
Southey,  whose  opinions  in  youth  had  been  so  wild  and 
Jacobinical,  the  intolerant  Toryism  of  his  manhood. 
Southey 's  feelings  towards  Byron  seem  to  have  been  a 
mixture  of  dread,  dislike,  and  disapproval.  In  the  pref- 
ace to  uThe  Vision  of  Judgment,"  a  poem  on  the  death 
of  George  III.,  Southey  spoke  with  great  severity  of  the 
"  Satanic  school "  of  authors,  and  their  leading  spirit, 
alluding  to  Byron's  "  Don  Juan,"  which  had  recently 
appeared  anonymously.  This  led  to  a  fierce  literary 
warfare,  conducted  in  the  columns  of  newspapers  and 
in  other  modes,  which  Byron  would  have  cut  short  by  a 
challenge,  but  his  friends  dissuaded  him  from  sending 
it.  It  is  little  creditable  to  Sonthey,  that  the  most 
acrimonious  and  insulting  of  all  his  letters  appeared  in 
"  The  Courier  "  a  few  months  after  Byron  had  died  in 


320  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Missolonghi,  a  martyr  to  the  cause  of  the  liberty  of 
Greece. 

"  The  Prisoner  of  Chillon,"  a  soliloquy  placed  in  the 
mouth  of  Bonnivard,  whom,  for  his  championship  of 
the  rights  and  liberty  of  Geneva,  the  Duke  of  Savoy 
imprisoned  for  six  years  (1530-36)  in  the  castle  of 
Chillon  on  the  Lake  of  Geneva,  appeared  in  1816.  The 
tale  of  "  Mazeppa,"  a  Cossack  chief  distinguished  in  the 
wars  of  Charles  XII.,  and  "  Beppo,"  belong  to  the  year 
1818.  Assailed  and  censured  on  every  side,  when  his 
wife,  who  had  gone  on  a  visit  to  her  father's  house, 
expressed  her  intention  of  not  returning  to  him,  Byron 
left  England  in  1816,  and  saw  his  native  land  no  more. 
How  he  lived  in  Italy,  it  is  painful  to  think ;  so  bright 
and  powerful  a  spirit,  degraded  by  the  indulgence  of 
pride  and  passion  to  a  state  of  such  deep  moral  defile- 
ment !  "  Don  Juan  "  appeared,  by  two  or  three  cantos 
at  a  time,  between  the  years  1819  and  1824.  It  was 
meant,  Byron  tells  us,  "  to  be  a  little  quietly  facetious 
upon  every  thing."  The  readiness,  fulness,  and  variety 
of  Byron's  mind  are  placed  by  this  work  in  the  clearest 
light ;  nor  less  the  unbounded  audacity  of  his  temper, 
and  his  contempt  for  all  ordinary  restraints.  The  metre 
is  the  same  as  the  ottava  rima  of  the  Italian  poets. 
Byron  died  in  1824. 

There  is  no  English  poet  of  whom  it  is  more  difficult 
to  express  an  opinion  in  a  few  words  than  of  Crabbe. 
His  poems  often  raise  our  admiration  ;  but  they  also 
much  too  frequently  provoke  our  derision.  For,  though 
the  powers  of  his  mind  were  very  considerable,  yet  they 
were  attended  with  a  kind  of  aesthetic  blindness,  a  want 
of  discernment,  a  deficient  sense  of  what  was  fit  to  be 
said  and  what  was  not ;  thus  he  was  often  led  to  mix 
up  in  the  strangest  manner  what  was  vulgar  and  trivial 
with  what  was  dignified  and  serious.  He  was  a  man  of 


MODERN  TIMES.  321 

a  robust  intelligence,  but  bereft,  at  least  in  his  ordinary 
moods,  of  the  finer  and  more  delicate  intuitions.  The 
inequality  thence  arising  appears,  I  think,  in  all  his 
poems,  except  "  Sir  Eustace  Grey." 

His  early  publications,  "  The  Library,"  "  The  Village," 
and  "The  Newspaper,"  all  in  heroic  verse,  date  from 
the  eighteenth  century.  "  The  Village  "  was  read  and 
revised  in  the  year  1783  by  the  venerable  Samuel  John- 
son, then  in  his  seventy-fourth  year;  and  owes  to  him 
the  finest  lines  that  it  contains.1  The  collection  of 
poems  published  in  1807  contained  "  The  Parish  Regis- 
ter," "  The  Hall  of  Justice,"  and  "  Sir  Eustace  Grey." 
The  first  of  these  is  in  three  parts,  which  treat  of 
baptisms,  marriages,  and  burials  respectively.  "  Sir 
Eustace  Grey,"  a  poem  written  in  stanzas  of  short  lines, 
is  the  story,  told  by  himself,  of  an  inmate  of  a  mad- 
house, whom  cruel  injuries  and  the  passions  of  an  un- 
bridled youth  had  bereft  of  reason,  but  whom  religious 
meditation  and  faith  have  partially  restored. 

"  The  Borough "(1809),  an  heroic  poem  in  a  series  of 
letters,  unveils  the  modes  of  life  of  an  English  seaside 
town.  This  must  certainly  have  been  the  poem  which 
suggested  the  parody  on  Crabbe  in  the  "  Rejected 
Addresses."  The  author's  ridiculous  anxiety  to  avoid 
giving  any  offence  to  any  one  is  scarcely  exaggerated  in 
the  parody,  which  makes  him  say,  "  My  profession  has 
taught  me  carefully  to  avoid  causing  any  annoyance, 
however  trivial,  to  any  individual,  however  foolish  or 
wicked."  The  sudden  drops  into  the  region  of  bathos 
are  quite  startling,  and  have  a  most  comical  effect.  For 
example  :  — 

1  "  Must  sleepy  bards  the  flattering  dream  prolong, 
Mechanic  echoes  of  the  Mantuan  song? 
From  truth  and  nature  shall  we  widely  stray, 
Where  Virgil,  not  where  fancy,  leads  the  way?" 


322  HISTORY  OF  EXGLISH  LITERATURE. 

"  Nor  angler  we  on  our  wide  stream  descry, 
But  one  poor  dredger,  where  his  oysters  lie : 
He,  cold  and  wet,  and  driving  with  the  tide, 
Beats  his  weak  arms  against  his  tarry  side, 
Then  drains  the  remnant  of  diluted  gin, 
To  aid  the  warmth  that  languishes  within." 

Such  imbecilities  are  the  more  provoking,  because 
they  alternate  with  really  fine  descriptive  passages;  such 
as  that  on  the  sea  and  strand,  which  may  be  found  in 
the  same  letter.  A  set  of  "  Tales,"  twenty-one  in  num- 
ber, treating  to  a  great  extent  of  subjects  similar  to 
those  handled  in  "  The  Borough,"  appeared  in  1812. 
The  "  Tales  of  the  Hall "  (1819)  have  more  of  a  regu- 
lar plan  than  any  other  of  the  author's  works.  Two 
brothers,  meeting  late  in  life  at  the  hall  of  their  native 
village,  which  has  been  purchased  by  the  elder  brother, 
relate  to  each  other  passages  of  their  past  experience. 
These  tales  are  composed  in  a  more  equable  strain  of 
language  and  thought  than  "  The  Borough."  They 
never  rise  very  high  certainly ;  they  are  prosaic  and 
commonplace  in  the  flow  of  narrative  ;  the  moralizing 
is  often  threadbare :  but  they  keep  clear  of  the  ridicu- 
lous lapses  which  have  been  noticed  in  the  former  work. 
The  character-painting  is  the  best  thing  about  them, 
being  sometimes  very  close  and  minute,  and  evincing 
much  subtilty  of  appreciation. 

Coleridge,  the  "  noticeable  man  with  large  gray 
eyes," l  whose  equal  in  original  power  of  genius  has 
rarely  appeared  amongst  men,  published  his  first  volume 
of  poems  in  1796.  His  project  of  a  Pantisocratic  com- 
munity, to  be  founded  in  America,  has  been  already 
noticed.  Visionaiy  as  it  was,  he  received  Southey's 
announcement  of  his  withdrawal  from  the  scheme  with 
a  tempest  of  indignation.  For  some  years  after  his 

1  Wordsworth. 


MODEEN  TIMES.  323 

marriage  with  the  sister  of  Southey's  wife,  he  supported, 
himself  by  writing  for  the  newspapers  and  other  literary 
work.  Feeble  health,  and  an  excessive  nervous  sensi- 
bility, led  him,  about  the  year  1799,  to  commence  the 
practice  of  taking  opium  ;  and  he  was  enslaved  to  this 
miserable  habit  for  twelve  or  fourteen  years.  Its  para- 
lyzing effects  on  the  mind  and  character  none  better 
knew,  or  has  more  accurately  described,  than  himself. 
What  impression  he  produced  at  this  period  upon  others, 
may  be  gathered  from  a  passage  in  one  of  Southey's 
letters,  written  in  1804.  "Coleridge,"  he  says,  "is 
worse  in  body  than  you  seem  to  believe ;  but  the  main 
cause  is  the  management  of  himself,  or,  rather,  want  of 
management.  His  mind  is  in  a  perpetual  St.  Vitus's 
dance,  —  eternal  activity  without  action.  At  times  he 
feels  mortified  that  he  should  have  done  so  little  ;  but 
this  feeling  never  produces  any  exertion.  I  will  begin 
to-morrow,  he  says ;  and  thus  he  has  been  all  his  life 
long  letting  to-day  slip.  .  .  .  Poor  fellow !  there  is  no 
one  thing  which  gives  me  so  much  pain  as  the  witness- 
ing such  a  waste  of  unequalled  power." 

Coleridge's  poetical  works  fill  three  small  volumes, 
and  consist  of  "  Juvenile  Poems,"  "  Sibylline  Leaves," 
"  The  Ancient  Mariner,"  "  Christabel,"  and  the  plays 
of  "  Remorse,"  "  Zapolya,"  and  "  Wallenstein,"  the 
last  being  a  translation  of  the  play  of  Schiller.  Cole- 
ridge's latter  years  were  passed  under  the  roof  of  Mr, 
Gillman,  a  surgeon  at  Highgate.  One  who  then  sought 
his  society  has  drawn  the  following  picture  of  the 
white-haired  sage  in  the  evening  of  his  checkered 
life:  — 

"  Coleridge  sat  on  the  brow  of  Highgate  Hill,  in  those  years,  looking 
down  on  London  and  its  smoke  tumult,  like  a  sage  escaped  from  the 
inanity  of  life's  battle,  attracting  towards  him  the  thoughts  of  innu- 
merable brave  souls  still  engaged  there.  His  express  contributions 


324  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

to  poetry,  philosophy,  or  any  specific  province  of  human  literature  or 
enlightenment,  had  been  small  and  sadly  intermittent;  but  he  had, 
especially  among  young  inquiring  men,  a  higher  than  literary,  a  kind 
of  prophetic  or  magician  character.  ...  A  sublime  man,  who,  alone 
in  those  dark  days,  had  saved  his  crown  of  spiritual  manhood; 
escaping  from  the  black  materialism,  and  revolutionary  deluges,  with 
'God,  freedom,  and  immortality'  still  his;  a  king  of  men.  The 
practical  intellects  of  the  world  did  not  much  heed  him,  or  carelessly 
reckoned  him  a  metaphysical  dreamer;  but  to  the  rising  spirits  of  the 
young  generation  he  had  this  dusky  sublime  character,  and  sat  there 
as  a  kind  of  Magus,  girt  in  mystery  and  enigma,  his  Dodona  oak- 
grove  (Mr.  Gillman's  house  at  Highgate)  whispering  strange  things, 
uncertain  whether  oracles  or  jargon."  * 

Mr.  Carlyle  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  disappointing 
and  hazy  character  of  Coleridge's  conversation,  copious 
and  rich  as  it  was,  and  occasionally  running  clear  into 
glorious  passages  of  light  and  beauty.  Such,  indeed,  is 
the  general  effect  of  his  life,  and  of  all  that  he  ever  did. 
One  takes  up  the  "  Biographia  Literaria "  (1817), 
imagining  that  one  will  at  least  find  some  consistent 
and  intelligible  account  of  the  time,  place,  motive,  and 
other  circumstances  bearing  upon  the  composition  of 
his  different  works ;  but  there  is  scarcely  any  thing  of 
the  kind.  The  book  possesses  an  interest  of  its  own, 
on  account  of  the  subtle  criticism  upon  Wordsworth's 
poetry  and  poetical  principles,  which  occupies  the  chief 
portion  of  it ;  but  when  you  have  arrived  at  the  end 
of  all  introductory  matter,  and  at  the  point  where  the 
biography  should  commence,  the  book  is  done ;  it  is  all 
preliminaries,  a  solid  porch  to  an  air-drawn  temple. 
Coleridge  died  in  1834. 

Southey  left  Oxford  as  a  marked  man  on  account  of 
his  extreme  revolutionary  sympathies,  and  being  un- 
willing to  take  orders,  and  unable,  from  want  of  means, 
to  study  medicine,  was  obliged,  as  he  tells  us,  "  perforce 
to  enter  the  muster-roll  of  authors."  The  prevailing 

1  Carlyle' s  Life  of  Sterling. 


MODERN  TIMES.  325 

taste  for  what  was  extravagant  and  romantic,  exempli- 
fied in  Mrs.  Radcliffe's  novels  and  Kotzebue's  plays, 
perhaps  led  him  to  select  a  wild  Arabian  legend  as  the 
groundwork  of  his  first  considerable  poem,  "  Thalaba 
the  Destroyer,"  published  in  1801.  "Thalaba,"  like 
Shelley's  "  Queen  Mab,"  is  written  in  irregular  Pindaric 
strophes  without  rhyme.  "Madoc,"  an  epic  poem  in 
blank  verse,  founded  on  the  legend  of  a  voyage  made 
by  a  Welsh  prince  to  America  in  the  twelfth  century, 
and  of  his  founding  a  colony  there,  appeared  in  1805 ; 
and  "  The  Curse  of  Kehama,"  in  which  are  represented 
the  awful  forms  of  the  Hindoo  Pantheon,  and  the  vast 
and  gorgeous  imagery  of  the  Hindoo  poetry,  in  1811. 
"Roderic,  the  Last  of  the  Goths"  (1814),  a  long  narra- 
tive poem  in  blank  verse,  celebrates  the  fall  of  the  Visi- 
Gothic  monarchy  in  Spain.  "  The  Vision  of  Judgment " 
(1820),  in  English  hexameters,  is  a  lament  over  the 
death  of  George  III.,  whom  it  leaves  in  the  safe  enjoy- 
ment of  paradise.  "  A  Tale  of  Paraguay,"  as  it  was 
under  Jesuit  management,  appeared  in  1824.  Besides 
these  larger  works,  Southey  wrote  a  multitude  of  minor 
poems.  His  characteristics  as  an  author  are  indefatiga- 
ble industry,  great  skill  at  manipulating  and  shaping 
his  materials,  extraordinary  facility  of  expression,  and 
considerable  powers  of  reflection  and  imagination.  Nor 
can  humor  be  denied  him,  though  he  had  sometimes  an 
unfortunate  way  of  exhibiting  it  at  the  expense  of  the 
religious  beliefs  and  practices  of  other  nations.  In 
1803  Southey  settled  at  Greta  Hall,  near  Keswick ; 
and  here  the  remainder  of  his  life  was  spent,  in  the 
incessant  prosecution  of  his  various  literary  undertak- 
ings. After  the  death  of  his  wife,  in  1837,  he  became 
an  altered  man.  "  So  completely,"  he  writes,  "  was  she 
part  of  myself,  that  the  separation  makes  me  feel  like  a 
different  creature.  While  she  was  herself  I  had  no 


326  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

sense  of  growing  old."  After  his  second  marriage,  in 
1839,  his  mind  began  gradually  to  fail ;  and  the  lamp  of 
reason  at  last  went  entirely  out.  In  this  sad  condition, 
he  died  in  the  year  1843. 

Thomas  Campbell,  though  born  in  Glasgow,  was  a 
Highlander  both  in  blood  and  nature.  His  "  Pleasures 
of  Hope  "  (1799)  was  certainly  the  best  continuation  of 
the  lines  of  thought  marked  out  by  Pope  and  the  mor- 
alists that  had  appeared  since  the  time  of  Goldsmith. 
The  poem  has  little  plan,  as  might  be  expected  from 
the  nature  of  the  subject.  It  contains  a  sensational 
passage  concerning  slavery,  accompanied  by  the  fervent 
hope  that  it  may  some  day  be  abolished.  There  are 
also  some  fine  lines  on  fallen  Poland,  and  a  masterly 
sketch  of  the  cheerless  creed  of  the  materialist,  which 
is  described  in  order  to  be  rejected.  Some  lines  occur 
that  are  now  familiar  to  every  ear  :  e.g.,  — 

"  What  though  my  winged  hours  of  bliss  have  been, 
Like  angel-visits,  few  and  far  between?" 

And,  — 

"  'Tis  distance  lends  enchantment  to  the  view." 

But  "  The  Pleasures  of  Hope,"  is,  after  all,  of  the 
nature  of  a  prize  poem,  though  a  brilliant  one.  Camp- 
bell's genius  is  most  attractive  in  those  poems  in  which 
his  loving  Celtic  nature  has  free  play.  Such  are 
"  O'Connor's  Child,"  "  Lochiel's  Warning,"  "  The  Exile 
of  Erin,"  and  "Lord  Ullin's  Daughter;"  in  all  of 
which,  but  especially  in  the  first-named,  the  tenderness, 
grace,  and  passion  of  the  Celtic  race  shine  forth  with 
inexpressible  beauty.  And  the  childlike  simplicity  of 
love  and  sorrow,  dwelling  on  little  circumstances, — 
homish,  clannish,  gregarious,  unselfish, — not  sturdily 
self-reliant,  but  yearning  towards  others,  and  feeling  its 
own  being  incomplete  without  them;  all  this,  so  emi- 


MODERN  TIMES.  327 

nently  Celtic  in  its  character,  is  exhibited  in  "  The  Sol- 
dier's Dream/'  "Gertrude  of  Wyoming"  (1809),  a 
tale  of  Pennsylvania,  written  in  the  Spenserian  stanza, 
is  soft  and  musical  in  its  versification,  but  deficient  in 
sustained  epic  interest.  If  Campbell  had  understood 
his  own  temperament,  which  tended  to  be  dreamy  and 
meditative,  he  would  surely  not  have  selected  such  a 
dreamy,  lingering  measure  as  the  Spenserian  stanza  for 
a  narrative  poem.  His  martial  and  patriotic  songs, 
"  Hohenlinden,"  "  The  Battle  of  the  Baltic,"  "  Ye  Mar- 
iners of  England,"  are  rapid  and  spirit-stirring,  but  full 
of  faults  of  expression.  "  The  Last  Man  "  is  interest- 
ing from  the  nature  of  the  subject :  it  gives  us  the  solil- 
oquy of  the  last  representative  of  the  human  race, 
uttered  from  among  tombs  upon  the  crumbling  earth ; 
but  the  effort  is  more  ambitious  than  successful,  and 
many  expressions  and  images  are  overstrained.  Camp- 
bell died  in  1844. 

To  Wordsworth,  from  his  very  childhood,  life  seems 
to  have  been  a  dream  of  beauty,  a  continual  rapture. 
Those  accesses  of  intellectual  passion,  those  ardors  of 
intellectual  love,  which  come  but  seldom  to  most  men, 
and  usually  in  the  maturity  of  their  powers,  were  to 
him  an  habitual  experience  almost  from  the  cradle.  This 
it  was  that  made  him  say,  "  The  child  is  father  of  the 
man  ;  "  this  explains  such  passages  as  the  following  in 
the  ode  on  "The  Intimations  of  Immortality,"  which 
else  might  sound  like  mere  mysticism :  — 

"  Not  in  entire  forgetfulness, 

Nor  yet  in  utter  nakedness, 
But  trailing  clouds  of  glory,  do  we  come 
From  God,  who  is  our  home. 
Heaven  lies  about  us  in  our  infancy ! 
Shades  of  the  prison-house  begin  to  close 

Upon  the  growing  boy ; 
But  he  beholds  the  light,  and  whence  it  flows, 

He  sees  it  in  his  joy ; 


328  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

The  youth,  who  daily  farther  from  the  east 
Must  travel,  still  is  Nature's  priest, 

And  by  the  vision  splendid 

Is  on  his  way  attended ; 
At  length  the  man  perceives  it  die  away, 
And  fade  into  the  light  of  common  day." 

His  whole  being  was  moulded  in  a  singularly  perfect 
balance;  the  "  sound  mind  in  the  sound  body "  was 
never  more  strikingly  exemplified  than  in  him.  To 
keen  senses  acting  in  a  healthy  and  hardy  frame,  he 
joined  the  warmest  moral  emotions  and  the  most  ex- 
tended moral  sympathies,  together  with  a  synthesis  of 
the  finest  intellectual  faculties,  crowned  by  the  gift 
of  an  imagination  the  most  vivid  and  the  most  penetrat- 
ing. This  imagination  he  himself  regarded  as  the  royal 
faculty,  by  which  he  was  to  achieve  whatever  it  was 
given  him  to  do,  calling  it  — 

"  But  another  name  for  absolute  power 
And  clearest  insight,  amplitude  of  mind, 
And  Reason  in  her  most  exalted  mood."  l 

Born  on  the  edge  of  a  mountain  district,  he  had  been 
familiar  from  the  first  with  all  that  is  lovely  and  all 
that  is  awful  in  the  aspects  of  nature.  Deep  and  ten- 
der sympathies  bound  him  always  to  the  lot  of  his 
fellow-creatures,  especially  the  poor  and  the  simple ; 
unceasing  reflection  was  his  delight,  and,  as  it  were,  one 
of  the  conditions  of  his  existence.  It  was  therefore 
upon  no  vacant  or  sluggish  mind  that  the  cry  of 
revolutionary  France  burst,  in  her  hour  of  regeneration. 
He  was  less  shaken  than  others,  because  he  had  already 
seen  in  his  reveries  the  possibility  of  better  things  for 
human  society  than  it  had  yet  attained  to,  better  than 
even  the  Revolution  promised  to  provide  :  — 

1  The  Prelude,  conclusion. 


MODERN  TIMES.  329 

"  If  at  the  first  great  outbreak  I  rejoiced 
Less  than  might  well  befit  ray  youth,  the  cause 
In  part  lay  here,  —  that  unto  me  the  events 
Seemed  nothing  out  of  nature's  certain  course, 
A  gift  that  was  come  rather  late  than  soon."  1 

He  visited  France  immediately  after  leaving  Cambridge 
in  1792,  and  remained  there  above  a  year.  At  Orleans 
he  formed  an  intimacy  with  an  officer  of  Girondist 
opinions,  who  afterwards,  as  Gen.  Beaupuis,  fell  in 
battle  with  the  royalists  near  the  Loire  :  — 

"  He  on  his  part,  accoutred  for  the  worst, 
He  perished  fighting,  in  supreme  command, 
Upon  the  borders  of  the  unhappy  Loire, 
For  liberty,  against  deluded  men, 
His  fellow-countrymen ;  and  yet  most  blessed 
In  this,  that  he  the  fate  of  later  times 
Lived  not  to  see,  nor  what  we  now  behold, 
Who  have  as  ardent  hearts  as  he  had  then."  2 

With  Beaupuis  the  poet  talked  over  the  oppressions 
of  the  old  regime,  and  speculated  hopefully  on  the  new 
model  of  a  regenerated  society,  which  an  uprisen  peo- 
ple, whose  natural  virtues  would  be  now  free  to  exert 
themselves  and  find  the  career  which  they  required, 
was  about  to  exhibit  to  the  world.  Yet  even  in  that 
hour  of  elation  Wordsworth  was  saddened  by  the  sight 
of  an  untenanted  and  roofless  convent :  — 

"  In  spite  of  those  heart-bracing  colloquies, 
In  spite  of  real  fervor,  and  of  that 
Less  genuine  and  wrought  up  within  myself, 
I  could  not  but  bewail  a  wrong  so  harsh, 
And  for  the  matin-bell  to  sound  no  more 
Grieved,  and  the  twilight  taper,  and  the  cross, 
High  on  the  topmost  pinnacle."  3 

Compelled  to  return  to  England  in  1793,  ho  repaired 
ere  long  to  his  beloved  mountains,  and  in  the  same  yeav 

1  The  Prelude,  book  ix.        2  Ibid.        3  Ibid. 

28* 


330  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITEKATUKE. 

produced  his  first  work,  containing  the  "  Evening  Walk," 
and  "  Descriptive  Sketches  taken  during  a  Pedestrian 
Tour  among  the  Alps,"  —  poems  in  which  echoes  of 
Pope,  Goldsmith,  and  Crabbe  are  more  apparent  than 
any  very  decided  indications  of  genius.  At  this 
period,  England  joined  in  the  war  against  France;  and 
Wordsworth's  moral  nature  —  the  whole  frame  of  his 
aspirations  and  sympathies  —  received  a  rude  shock.  He 
was  even  meditating  a  return  to  France,  and  the  devo- 
tion of  all  his  energies  to  political  action.  Perplexed 
and  disappointed,  he  was  in  some  danger  of  becoming 
permanently  soured  and  morose.  But  from  this 
state  his  admirable  sister,  who  was  now  become  his 
constant  companion,  raised  him,  and  drew  him  gently 
towards  the  true  and  destined  path  for  his  footsteps, 
• —  the  vocation  of  a  poet:  — 

"  She  whispered  still  that  brightness  would  return; 
She,  in  the  midst  of  all,  preserved  me  still 
A  poet,  made  me  seek  beneath  that  name, 
And  that  alone,  my  office  upon  earth."  l 

But  neither  the  brother  nor  the  sister  had  at  this 
time  any  patrimony.  This  want,  however,  was  supplied 
in  a  singular  way,  at  the  very  moment  when  it  began  to 
be  urgent,  by  the  bequest  of  a  young  friend  of  the 
name  of  Calvert,  whom  Wordsworth  had  tenderly 
nursed  through  the  last  weeks  of  a  decline.  This  was 
in  1794 ;  and  the  pair,  accustomed  to  the  austere  sim- 
plicity and  plain  fare  of  the  North,  lived  contentedly 
upon  this  bequest  (  which  did  not  exceed  nine  hundred 
pounds  )  for  eight  or  nine  years.  In  1802,  when  this 
resource  was  nearly  exhausted,  the  succession  of  a  new 
Lord  Lonsdale  brought  with  it  the  payment  of  their 
patrimony,  long  unjustly  withheld.  Wordsworth  then 

A  The  Prelude,  book  xi. 


MODERN  TIMES.  331 

married,  and  settled  at  Grasmere.  During  this  period 
bis  poetry,  as  De  Quincey  says,  was  "  trampled  upon ; " 
and  he  had  no  other  permanent  resource  for  a  livelihood. 
But  in  1807  he  received  from  Lord  Lonsdale  the 
appointment  of  distributor  of  stamps  for  the  counties 
of  Cumberland  and  Westmoreland,  and  was  set  free 
thenceforward  from  pecuniary  anxieties.  Shelley,  in 
his  "  Peter  Bell  the  Third,"  sneers  at  Wordsworth  as  a 
pensioner  bought  over  by  the  Tories  ;  but  the  taunt  was 
false  and  groundless.  Some  few  persons  in  England 
were  wise  enough  to  see  that  Wordsworth's  function  in 
this  world  was  to  write,  and  at  the  same  time  happy 
enough  to  have  it  in  their  power  to  say  to  him,  "  Write, 
and  you  shall  be  fed."  Among  these  few  were  Calvert 
and  Lord  Lonsdale.  It  is  hard  to  see  how  Wordsworth's 
mental  and  moral  independence  was  more  compromisd 
by  accepting  an  office  from  the  lord  lieutenant  of  his 
county  than  was  Shelley's  by  his  deriving  his  income 
from  landed  property,  the  secure  tenure  of  which  de- 
pended upon  the  repression  of  Jacobinical  projects  at 
home  and  abroad. 

In  1798  appeared  "  The  Lyrical  Ballads,"  to  which  a 
few  pieces  were  contributed  by  Coleridge  and  Southey. 
Again,  in  1800  and  1807,  collections  of  detached  poems 
appeared ;  and  in  1814  was  published  "  The  Excursion." 
This  is  the  second  part  of  a  larger  poem,  which  was  to 
have  been  entitled  "  The  Recluse,"  and  to  have  been  in 
three  parts.  The  third  part  was  only  planned ;  of  the 
first,  only  one  book  was  ever  written.  A  long  poem  in 
fourteen  books,  called  "  The  Prelude,"  written  in  1804, 
was  not  given  to  the  world  till  1850.  It  contains  a  his- 
tory of  the  growth  and  workings  of  the  poet's  mind,  up 
to  "  the  point  when  he  was  emboldened  to  hope  that 
his  faculties  were  sufficiently  matured  for  entering  upon 
the  arduous  labor  which  he  had  proposed  to  himself," 


332  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

that,  namely,  of  "  constructing  a  literary  work  that  might 
live,"  a  philosophical  poem  containing  views  of  man, 
nature,  and  society.  This  great  work,  the  storehouse 
of  his  deepest  and  wisest  thoughts,  the  author  himself 
compared  to  a  Gothic  church,  the  "  Prelude  "  to  the 
ante-chapel  of  this  church,  and  all  his  minor  poems  to 
"  the  little  cells,  oratories,  and  sepulchral  recesses  ordi- 
narily included  in  such  edifices." 

Of  the  general  plan  of  this  sublime  composition,  I 
must  try  to  give  the  outline.  In  the  first  book  the  poet 
meets  the  "  Wanderer,"  a  Scotch  peddler,  who,  having 
by  hard  work  earned  enough  to  make  him  independent 
of  his  trade,  wanders  continually  from  place  to  place, 
feeding  his  contemplative  spirit  on  the  varied  physical 
aspects,  or  moral  themes,  which  nature  and  human  life 
supply.  The  Wanderer  conducts  him  to  the  remote 
valley,  where  dwells  the  "  Solitary,"  a  man  who  after 
having  lived  some  years  with  an  adored  wife  and  two 
children,  and  then  seen  them  die  before  his  eyes ;  hav- 
ing perplexed  his  brain  with  a  thousand  jarring  tenets 
of  religion  and  philosophy ;  having  hailed  with  rapture 
the  revolution  in  France,  and  groaned  over  the  repression 
of  the  manifold  activities  which  itjjjjt  elicited  by  the 
hard  hand  of  military  power,  —  now  in  cynical  despon- 
dency, unsocial  and  friendless,  longs  for  the  hour  of 

death :  — 

"  Such  a  stream 

Is  human  life ;  and  so  the  spirit  fares 
In  the  best  quiet  to  her  course  allowed ; 
And  such  is  mine,  save  only  for  a  hope 
That  my  particular  current  soon  will  reach 
The  unfathomable  gulf,  where  all  is  still." 

In  the  fourth  book,  "Despondency  Corrected,"  the 
Wanderer,  with  the  true  eloquence  of  a  noble  enthusi- 
asm, endeavors  to  remove  the  morbid  hopelessness  of 
his  friend  by  unfolding  his  views  of  the  immense  poten- 


MODERN  TIMES.  333 

tiality  for  good  which  every  human  existence,  not 
utterly  corrupted,  contains  within  itself;  by  enlarging 
on  the  blessings  which,  in  every  age  and  every  land, 
religious  hope,  and  even,  were  no  better  thing  obtaina- 
ble, superstitious  reverence,  have  'bestowed  upon  men, 
—  blessings  more  real  than  any  which  modern  science 
(apt  to  be  blind  to  the  higher  while  keenly  conscious  of 
the  lower  truth)  confers  on  its  disciples ;  lastl/,  by 
pointing  out  the  practical  courses  and  methods  of  disci- 
pline which,  in  his  judgment,  lead  to  the  perfection  of 
the  individual  being.  The  beautiful  ideal  of  human 
perfection  here  presented  to  us  differs  from  that  which 
we  find  in  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament  perhaps  only 
in  this,  that  it  implies  an  intellectual  activity  and  cul- 
ture possible  only  to  the  few,  and  must  therefore  forever 
be  unattainable  by  those  unequal,  imperfectly  balanced 
characters  who  constitute,  nevertheless,  the  chief  por- 
tion of  mankind.  To  such  characters,  Christianity  alone 
opens  out  the  means  of  reaching  the  highest  grade  of 
perfection  compatible  with  their  nature. 

In  the  later  books,  from  the  fifth  to  the  ninth  inclu- 
sive, the  chief  figure  is  that  of  the  "  Pastor,"  who  re- 
lates to  the  personages  already  introduced  numerous 
anecdotes  drawn  from  the  experience  of  his  mountain 
parish.  Among  these  is  the  story  of  "  Wonderful  Walk- 
er," the  good  pastor  of  Seathwaite  in  the  Vale  of 
Dud  don,  which  parish  he  held  for  sixty-six  years. 

Among  Wordsworth's  minor  poems  I  will  mention, 
as  especially  characteristic  of  his  genius,  "  Laodamia," 
"  Matthew,"  "  The  Primrose  of  the  Rock,"  "  The  Sol- 
itary Reaper,"  "  The  Evening  Voluntaries,"  the  sonnets 
on  the  River  Duddon,  and  "  Yarrow  Un visited." 

Moore,  though  of  humble  parentage,  was  enabled  by 
his  own  striking  talents,  and  by  the  self-denying  and 
intelligent  exertions  of  his  excellent  mother,  to  receive 


334  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

and  profit  by  the  best  education  that  was  to  be  obtained 
in  his  native  Ireland.  He  went  up  to  London  in  1799, 
to  study  for  the  bar,  with  little  money  in  his  purse,  but 
furnished  with  an  introduction  to  Lord  Moira,  and 
with  the  manuscript  of  his  translation  of  Anacreon. 
Through  Lord  Moira  he  was  presented  to  the  Prince 
Regent,  and  permitted  to  dedicate  his  translation  to 
him.  The  work  appeared,  and  of  course  delighted  the 
gay  and  jovial  circle  at  Carl  ton  House.  Moore  thus 
obtained  the  requisite  start  in  London  society ;  and  his 
own  wit  and  social  tact  accomplished  the  rest.  Through 
Lord  Moira's  interest  he  was  appointed,  in  1803,  to  the 
registrarship  of  the  Bermudas.  But  he  could  not  long" 
endure  the  solitude  and  storms  of  the  "  vexed  Ber 
moothes ;  "  and,,  leaving  his  office  to  be  discharged  by  a 
deputy,  he  returned,  after  a  tour  in  the  United  States, 
to  England.  Some  of  his  prettiest  lyrics,  e.g.,  "The  In- 
dian Bark,"  and  "  The  Lake  of  the  Dismal  Swamp,"  are 
memorials  of  the  American  journey.  In  the  poems  of 
"  Corruption,"  "  Intolerance,"  and  "  The  Sceptic,"  pub- 
lished in  1808  and  1809,  he  tried  his  hand  at  moral 
satire,  in  imitation  of  Pope.  But  the  role  of  a  censor 
morum  was  ill  suited  to  the  cheerful,  convivial  temper 
of  Tom  Moore  ;  and,  though  there  are  plenty  of  witty 
and  stinging  lines  in  these  satires,1  they  achieved  no 
great  success. 

He  found  at  all  times  his  most  abundant  source  of 
inspiration  in  the  thought  of  his  suffering  country,' 
whose  sorrows  he  lamented  in  many  a  lovely  elegy,  and 
whose  oppression  he  denounced  in  many  a  noble  lyric. 
Even  in  that  poem  which,  as  a  work  of  art,  must  be 
regarded  as  his  masterpiece,  —  I  mean  "  Lalla  Rookh," 

1  For  instance :  — 

"  But  bees,  on  flowers  alighting,  cease  their  hum: 
So,  settling  upon  places,  Whigs  grow 


MODERN  TIMES.  335 

a  work  in  which  the  reader  is  transported  to  the  palaces 
of  Delhi  and  the  gardens  of  Cashmere,  —  Moore  him' 
self  tells  us  that  he  vainly  strove,  in  several  abortive 
attempts,  to  rise  to  the  height  of  his  own  original  con- 
ception, until  the  thought  struck  him  of  embodying  in 
his  poem  a  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  Ghebers  or  fire- 
worshippers  of  Persia,  a  persecuted  race,  who,  like  the 
Irish,  had  preserved  the  faith  of  their  forefathers  through 
centuries  of  oppression,  and  whose  nationality  had  never 
been  wholly  crushed  out  by  Moslem  rule.  "  Lalla 
Rookh"  (1817)  consists  of  four  tales,  "The  Veiled 
Prophet  of  Khorassan,"  "  Paradise  and  the  Peri,"1 
"  The  Fire-Worshippers,"  and  "  The  Light  of  the  Ha- 
rem." A  slight  thread  of  prose  narrative,  gracefully 
and  wittily  told,  connects  them,  inasmuch  as  they  are 
all  recited  by  Feramorz,  a  young  poet  of  Cashmere,  for 
the  entertainment  of  Lalla  Rookh,  daughter  of  the 
Emperor  Aurungzebe,  while  she  is  journeying  from 
Delhi  to  Cashmere  to  wed  her  affianced  lord,  the  prince 
of  Bucharia.  Fadladeen,  the  chamberlain  of  the  prin- 
cess's household,  criticises  each  poem  after  it  has  been 
recited,  in  a  very  lively  and  slashing  manner.  As  a 
political  satirist,  Moore,  on  the  Liberal  side,  was  quite  as 
cutting  as,  and  far  more  copious  than,  Canning  or  Frere 
or  Maginn  on  the  Tory  side.  His  "  Political  Epistles  " 
are  of  various  dates.  Among  them  is  the  far-famed 
44  Epistle  of  the  Prince  Regent  to  the  Duke  of  York," 
in  which  the  "  first  gentleman  in  Europe "  is  made  to 
say,  partly  in  his  own  very  words,  — 

"  I  am  proud  to  declare  I  have  no  predilections ; 
And  my  heart  is  a  sieve,  where  some  scattered  affections 
Are  just  danced  about  for  a  moment  or  two, 
And,  the  finer  they  are,  the  more  sure  to  run  through." 

1  See  p.  395. 


336  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

"The  Fudge  Family  in  Paris"  (1818),  and  "Fables 
for  the  Holy  Alliance  "  (1819),  were  designed  to  stem 
the  tide  of  re-action,  which,  after  the  end  of  the  great 
war,  threatened  to  replace  the  throne  and  the  altar  in 
their  old  despotic  supremacy.  "  The  Twopenny  Post- 
bag,"  a  collection  of  imaginary  intercepted  letters,  put 
into  verse,  in  one  of  which  there  is  a  playful  hit  at 
Walter  Scott,  who  had  just  published  "  Rokeby,"  dates 
from  1813.  But  all  that  was  highest  and  purest  in 
Moore's  nature  is  best  seen  in  his  "  Irish  Melodies  " 
(1807-34),  in  which  he  appears  as  the  true  Tyrtseus  of 
his  beloved  Ireland.  His  "  Sacred  Songs  "  (1816)  are 
less  interesting.  In  his  later  years  Moore  took  to  prose 
writing;  compiled  the  "Life  of  Sheridan"  (1825),  and 
the  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Byron  "  (1830)  ;  and 
also  produced  "  The  Epicurean,"  a  "  History  of  Ire- 
land," the  "Memoirs  of  Captain  Rock,"  and  "The 
"  Travels  of  an  Irish  Gentleman  in  Search  of  a  Reli- 
gion." His  mind,  like  Southey's,  was  gone  for  several 
years  before  his  death,  which  occurred  in  1852. 

Thomas  Hood  was  a  man  of  rare  powers.  Pathos,  sensibility,  in- 
dignation against  wrong,  enthusiasm  for  human  improvement  —  all 
these  were  his;  but  the'refracting  medium  of  his  intelligence  was  so 
peculiarly  constituted,  that  he  could  seldom  express  his  feelings 
except  through  witty  and  humorous  forms.  However  gravely  the 
sentence  begins,  you  know  that  you  will  probably  have  to  hold  your 
sides  before  it  is  ended.  The  following  well-known  stanza  is  really  a 
type  of  his  genius :  — 

"  Mild  light,  and  by  degrees,  should  be  the  plan 

To  cure  the  dark  and  erring  mind ; 
But  who  would  rush  at  a  benighted  man, 
And  give  him  two  black  eyes  for  being  blind  f  " 

His  first  work  was  "  Whims  and  Oddities,"  followed  by  the  "  Comic 
Annual,"  commenced  in  1830,  and  "  Up  the  Rhine"  (1838).  The 
wonderful  "  Song  of  the  Shirt "  (1843)  was  nearly  his  last  effort.  He 
died  of  a  chronic  disease  of  the  lungs  in  1845.  His  works  have  been 
published  in  a  collective  form  within  the  last  few  years. 


MODERN  TIMES.  337 

From  the  long  roll  of  minor  poets,  the  publication  of  whose  works 
falls  within  the  first  half  of  the  century,  I  select  a  few  names. 

Hogg,  the  "Ettrick  Shepherd,"  wrote  "The  Queen's  Wake" 
(1813),  which,  says  Mr.  Chambers,  "consists  of  a  collection  of  tales 
and  ballads  supposed  to  be  sung  to  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  by  the 
native  bards  of  Scotland,  assembled  at  a  royal  wake  at  Holyrood." 
Mrs.  Hemans  published  in  1828  "  Records  of  Women,"  and  after- 
wards, "National.  Lyrics,"  "Scenes  and  Hymns  of  Life,"  and  other 
works.  Many  of  her  songs  are  instinct  with  genuine  feeling,  and 
breathe  a  thrilling  music.  Miss  Landon,  once  so  widely  known  as 
L.  E.  L.,  is  the  authoress  of  "  The  Improvisatrice,"  "  The  Lost  Pleiad," 
and  a  multitude  of  other  lyrics  now  seldom  read.  James  and  Horace 
Smith  were  the  authors  of  the  "Rejected  Addresses"  (1812),  a  col- 
lection of  parodies  of  the  style  of  the  principal  living  poets.  Those 
on  Crabbe,  Byron,  and  Southey  are  especially  telling.  A  copious 
didactic  vein  is  exhibited  in  the  moral  poems  of  James  Montgomery, 
author  of  "Greenland"  (1819),  "The  Pelican  Island,"  and  other 
poems.  Robert  Pollok's  "  Course  of  Time"  (1827),  however  feeble 
and  faulty  as  a  poem,  was  so  exactly  adapted  to  the  level  of  culture 
in  the  religious  classes  of  Scotland,  that  it  obtained  an  extraordinary 
popularity,  having  passed  through  more  than  twenty  editions.  It 
consists  of  ten  books  of  blank  verse :  the  subjects  handled  are  much 
the  same  as  those  met  with  in  Young's  "Night  Thoughts."  Kirke 
White's  few  poems  were  for  a  time  made  famous  through  the  publi- 
cation of  his  "Remains"  by  Southey,  soon  after  his  death  in  1806. 
The  small  posthumous  volume  of  poems  by  Bishop  Heber  contains, 
besides  his  Oxford  prize  poem  of  "  Palestine,"  several  good  hymns 
and  elegantly  turned  lyrics. 


The  Drama,  1800-1850 :  Byron,  Sheridan  Knowles,  Joanna 
Baillie. 

During  the  present  century  the  stage,  considered  as  a 
field  for  literary  energy,  has  greatly  declined  even 
below  the  point  at  which  it  stood  a  hundred  years  ago. 
Why  this  is  so,  it  would  not  be  easy  to  explain ;  but 
there  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  fact  that  the  dramas  written 
by  men  of  genius  within  the  last  sixty  years  have  gen- 
erally proved  ill  adapted  for  the  stage,  while  the  authors 
of  the  successful  plays  have  not  been  men  of  genius. 
"  The  Doom  of  Devergoil  arid  Auchindrane  "  by  Scott, 
the  tragedy  of  "  Remorse  "  by  Coleridge,  that  of  "  The 

29 


338  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Cenci  "  by  Shelley,  Godwin's  play  of  "  Antonio,"  and 
Miss  Edgeworth's  "  Comic  Dramas,"  were  all  dramatic 
failures:  either  they  were  originally  unsuited  for  the 
modern  stage,  or,  when  produced  upon  it,  obtained 
little  or  no  success.  On  the  other  hand,  the  "  Virgin- 
ius,"  "The  Hunchback,"  "The  Wife,"  &c.,  of  Sheri- 
dan Knowles,  the  farces  of  O'Keefe,  and  the  comedies 
of  Morton  and  Reynolds,  being,  it  would  seem,  better 
adapted  to  the  temper,  taste,  and  capacity  of  the  play- 
going  public  than  the  works  of  greater  men,  brought 
success  and  popularity  to  their  authors.  The  "  Man- 
fred "  of  Lord  Byron,  published  as  "  a  dramatic  poem  " 
(1817),  was  no  more  intended  for  the  stage  than 
Goethe's  "  Faust,"  by  which  it  was  evidently  suggested. 
Of  "  Cain,"  and  "  Heaven  and  Earth,"  published  as 
"  mysteries,"  the  same  may  be  said.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  tragedies  of  "  Sardanapalus  "  and  "  Marino  Faliero  " 
were  designed  to  be  acting  plays.  The  plays  of  Joanna 
Baillie,  intended  to  be  illustrative  of  the  stronger 
passions  of  the  mind,  appeared  between  1798  and  1836. 
Two  or  three  of  them  only  were  brought  on  the  stage, 
and  were  but  coldly  received,  being  deficient  in  those 
various  and  vivid  hues  of  reality  which  assimilate  a 
drama  to  the  experience  of  life. 

Prose-Writers,  1800-1850. 

We  can  give  only  the  briefest  summary  of  what  has 
been  done  in  the  principal  departments  of  prose  writing 
during  this  period.  In  prose  fiction,  besides  the 
Waverley  novels,  which  have  been  already  noticed,  must 
be  specified  Jane  Austen's  admirable  tales  of  common 
life,  —  "  Pride  and  Prejudice,"  l  "  Mansfield  Park," 
"Northanger  Abbey,"  &c.,  —  which  their  beautiful  and 
too  short-lived  authoress  commenced  as  a  sort  of  protest 

i  See  p.  463. 


MODERN   TIMES.  339 

against  the  romantic  and  extravagant  nonsense  of  Mrs. 
Radcliffe's  novels;  and  Miss  Edgeworth's  hardly  less 
admirable  stories  of  Irish  life  and  character.  In 
oratory,  though  this  period  falls  far  below  that  which 
preceded  it,  we  may  name  the  speeches  of  Canning, 
Sheil,  O'Connell,  and  Sir  Robert  Peel.  In  political 
writing  and  pamphleteering,  the  chief  names  are, 
William  Cobbett,  with  his  strong  sense  and  English 
heartiness,  author  of  "The  Englishman's  Register;" 
Scott,  whose  political  squib,  the  "  Letters  of  Malachi 
Malagrowther,"  had  the  effect  of  arresting  the  progress 
of  a  measure  upon  which  the  ministry  had  resolved ; 
Sou  they ;  and  Sydney  Smith.  In  journalism,  the  pres- 
ent period  witnessed  the  growth  of  a  great  and  vital 
change,  whereby  the  most  influential  portion  of  a  news- 
paper is  no  longer,  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Junius,  the 
columns  containing  the  letters  of  well-informed  corre- 
spondents, but  the  leading  articles  representing  the 
opinions  of  the  newspaper  itself.  In  prose  satire,  the 
inexhaustible  yet  kindly  wit  of  Sydney  Smith  has  fur- 
nished us  with  some  incomparable  productions ;  witness 
"  Peter  Plymley's  Letters,"  1  his  articles  on  Christianity 
in  Hindostan,  and  his  letter  to  "  The  Times  "  on  Penn- 
sylvanian  repudiation.  In  history,  we  have  the  Greek 
histories  of  Mitford,  Thirlwall,  and  Grote,  the  unfin- 
ished Roman  history  of  Arnold,2  the  English  histories 
of  Lingard  and  Hallam,  and  the  work  similarly  named 
(though  "  History  of  the  Revolution,  and  of  the  Reign 
of  William  III.,"  would  be  an  exacter  title)  by  Lord 
Macaulay.  Mr.  Hallam's  "  View  of  the  State  of  Europe 
during  the  Middle  Ages"  (1818)  gave  a  stimulus  to 
historical  research  in  more  than  one  field  which  for 
ages  had  been,  whether  arrogantly  or  ignorantly,  over- 
looked. In  biography,  out  of  a  countless  array  of 

1  See  p.  470.  2  See  p.  489. 


340  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

works,  may  be  particularized  the  lives  of  Scott,  Wil- 
berforce,  and  Arnold,  compiled  respectively  by  Lock- 
hart,  the  brothers  Archdeacon  Wilberforce  and  %  the 
Bishop  of  Oxford,  and  Dr.  Stanley.  As  to  the  other 
works  subsidiary  to  history,  such  as  accounts  of 
voyages  and  travels,  their  name  is  Legion  ;  yet  perhaps 
none  of  their  authors  has  achieved  a  literary  distinction 
comparable  to  that  which  was  conferred  on  Lamartine 
by  his  "  Voyage  en  Orient."  In  theology,  we  have 
the  works  of  Robert  Hall  and  Rowland  Hill,  represent- 
ing the  Dissenting  and  Low  Church  sections  ;  those  of 
Arnold,  Whately,  and  Hampden,  representing  what  are 
sometimes  called  Broad  Church,  or  Liberal,  opinions ; 
those  of  Froude,  Pusey,  Davison,  Keble,  Sewell,  &c., 
representing  various  sections  of  the  great  High  Church 
party ;  and,  lastly,  those  of  Milner,  Dr.  Doyle,  —  the 
incomparable  "  J.  K.  L.,"  —  Wiseman,  and  Newman,  on 
the  side  of  the  Roman  Catholics.  In  philosophy,  we 
have  the  metaphysical  fragments  of  Coleridge,  the 
ethical  philosophy  of  Bentham,  the  logic  of  Whately 
and  Mill,  and  the  political  economy  of  the  last-mentioned 
writers,  and  also  Ricardo  and  Harriet  Martineau. 
Among  the  essay-writers  must  be  singled  out  Charles 
Lamb,  author  of  the  "  Essays  of  Elia,"  which  appeared 
in  1823.  In  other  departments  of  thought  and  theory, 
e.g.,  criticism,  we  have  the  literary  criticism  of  Hazlitt 
and  Thackeray,  and  the  art-criticism  of  Mr.  Ruskin.1 

1  Much  of  the  additional  matter  contained  in  this  and  the  preced- 
ing chapter  has  been  taken,  with  the  consent  of  the  publisher,  Mr. 
Murby  of  Bouverie  Street,  from  the  author's  Chaucer  to  Words- 
worth :  a  Short  History  of  English  Literature. 


CRITICAL   SECTION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

POETRY. 
Definition  of  Literature,  Classification  of  Poetical  Compositions. 

ENGLISH  LITERATURE  is  now  to  be  considered  under 
that  which  is  its  most  natural  and  legitimate  arrange- 
ment ;  that  arrangement,  namely,  of  which  the  principle 
is  not  sequence  in  time,  but  affinity  in  subject,  and 
which  aims,  by  comparing  together  works  of  the  same 
kind,  to  arrive,  with  greater  ease  and  certainty  than  is 
possible  by  the  chronological  method,  at  a  just  estimate 
of  their  relative  merits.  To  effect  this  critical  aim,  it  is 
evident  that  a  classification  of  the  works  which  compose 
a  literature  is  an  essential  pre-requisite.  This  we  shall 
now  proceed  to  do.  With  the  critical  process,  for  which 
the  proposed  classification  is  to  serve  as  the  foundation, 
we  shall,  in  the  present  work,  be  able  to  make  but  scanty 
progress.  Some  portions  of  it  we  shall  attempt,  with 
the  view  rather  of  illustrating  the  conveniences  of  the 
method,  than  of  seriously  undertaking  to  fill  in  the  vast 
outline  which  will  be  furnished  by  the  classification. 

First  of  all,  what  is  literature  ?  In  the  most  extended 
sense  of  the  word,  it  may  be  taken  for  the  whole  written 
thought  of  man ;  and,  in  the  same  acceptation,  a  national 

29*  341 


342  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

literature  is  the  whole  written  thought  of  a  particular 
nation.  But  this  definition  is  too  wide  for  our  present 
purpose :  it  would  include  such  books  as  u  Fearne  on 
Contingent  Remainders,"  and  such  periodicals  as  "  The 
Lancet "  or  "  The  Shipping  Gazette."  If  the  student 
of  literature  were  called  upon  to  examine  the  stores  of 
thought  and  knowledge  which  the  different  professions 
have  collected  and  published,  each  for  the  use  of  its  own 
members,  his  task  would  be  endless.  We  must  abstract, 
therefore,  all  works  addressed,  owing  to  the  speciality 
of  their  subject-matter,  to  particular  classes  of  men;  e.g., 
law  books,  medical  books,  works  on  moral  theology, 
rubrical  works,  &c. ;  in  short,  all  strictly  professional 
literature.  Again :  the  above  definition  would  include 
all  scientific  works,  which  would  be  practically  incon- 
venient, and  would  tend  to  obscure  the  really  marked 
distinction  that  exists  between  literature  and  science. 
We  must  further  abstract,  therefore,  all  works  in  which 
the  words  are  used  as  ciphers  or  signs  for  the  purpose 
of  communicating  objective  truth,  not  as  organs  of  the 
writer's  personality.  All  strictly  scientific  works  are 
thus  excluded.  In  popularized  science,  exemplified  by 
such  books  as  "  The  Architecture  of  the  Heavens,"  or 
"  The  Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History  of  the  Creation," 
the  personal  element  comes  into  play :  such  books  are, 
therefore,  rightly  classed  as  literature.  What  remains 
after  these  deductions  is  literature  in  the  strict  or  nar- 
rower sense ;  that  is,  the  assemblage  of  those  works 
which  are  neither  addressed  to  particular  classes,  nor  use 
words  merely  as  the  signs  of  things,  but  which,  treating 
of  subjects  that  interest  man  as  man,  and  using  words 
as  the  vehicles  and  exponents  of  thoughts,  appeal  to  the 
general  human  intellect  and  to  the  common  human 
heart. 

Literature,  thus  defined,  may  be  divided  into,  — 


EIPC   POETRY.  343 

1.  Poetry. 

2.  Prose  writings. 

For  the  present,  we  shall  confine  our  attention  to 
poetry.  The  subject  is  so  vast  as  not  to  be  easily  man- 
ageable ;  and  many  of  the  different  kinds  slide  into  each 
other  by  such  insensible  gradations,  that  any  classifica- 
tion must  be  to  a  certain  extent  arbitrary :  still  the  fol- 
lowing division  may  perhaps  be  found  useful.  Poetry 
may  be  classed  under  eleven  designations  :  1,  epic  ;  2, 
dramatic ;  3,  heroic  ;  4,  narrative ;  5,  didactic ;  6,  sa- 
tirical and  humorous ;  7,  descriptive  and  pastoral ;  8, 
lyrical  (including  ballads  and  sonnets)  ;  9,  elegiac ; 
10,  epistles ;  11,  miscellaneous  poems ;  the  latter  class 
including  all  those  pieces  (very  numerous  in  modern 
times)  which  cannot  be  conveniently  referred  to  any  of 
the  former  heads,  but  which  we  shall  endeavor  further 
to  subdivide  upon  some  rational  principle. 

Epic  Poetry:    "Paradise  Lost,"  Minor  Epic  Poems. 

The  epic  poem  has  ever  been  regarded  as  in  its  nature 
the  most  noble  of  all  poetic  performances.  Its  essential 
properties  were  laid  down  by  Aristotle  in  the  Poetics, 
more  than  two  thousand  years  ago,  and  they  have  not 
varied  since ;  for,  as  Pope  says,  — 

"  These  rules  of  old,  discovered,  not  devised, 
Are  nature  still,  but  nature  methodized." 

The  subject  of  the  epic  poem  must  be  some  one  great 
complex  action.  The  principal  personages  must  belong 
to  the  high  places  of  society,  and  must  be  grand  and 
elevated  in  their  ideas.  The  measure  must  be  of  a 
sonorous  dignity,  befitting  the  subject.  The  action  is 
developed  by  a  mixture  of  dialogue,  soliloquy,  and  nar- 
rative. Briefly  to  express  its  main  requisites,  the  epic 
poem  treats  of  one  great  complex  action,  in  a  grand 
style,  and  with  fulness  of  detail. 


344  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

English  literature  possesses  one  great  epic  poem,  — r 
Milton's  "  Paradise  Lost."  Not  a  few  of  our  poets  have 
wooed  the  epic  Muse  ;  and  the  results  are  seen  in  such 
poems  as  Cowley's  "Davideis,"  Blackmore's  "Prince 
Arthur,"  Glover's  "  Leonidas,"  and  Wilkie's  "  Epigo- 
niad."  But  these  productions  do  not  deserve  a  serious 
examination.  The  "  Leonidas,"  which  is  in  blank  verse, 
possesses  a  certain  rhetorical  dignity,  but  has  not  enough 
of  variety  and  poetic  truth  to  interest  deeply  any  but 
juvenile  readers.  Pope's  translation  of  the  "Iliad" 
may  in  a  certain  sense  be  called  an  English  epic  ;  for, 
while  it  would  be  vain  to  seek  in  it  for  the  true  Homeric 
spirit  and  manner,  the  translator  has,  in  compensation, 
adorned  it  with  many  excellences  of  his  own.  It  abounds 
with  passages  which  notably  illustrate  Pope's  best  quali- 
ties,—  his  wonderful  intellectual  vigor,  his  terseness, 
brilliancy,  and  ingenuity.  But  we  shall  have  other  and 
better  opportunities  of  noticing  these  characteristics  of 
that  great  poet. 

The  first  regular  criticism  on  the  "  Paradise  Lost  "  is 
found  in  "  The  Spectator,"  in  a  series  of  articles  written 
by  Addison.  Addison  compares  Milton's  poem  to  the 
"  Iliad  "  and  the  "  ^Eneid,"  first  with  respect  to  the 
choice  of  subject,  secondly  to  the  mode  of  treatment; 
and  in  both  particulars  he  gives  the  palm  to  Milton. 

Dr.  Johnson,  in  his  "  Life  of  Milton,"  speaks  in  more 
discriminating  terms :  — 

"  The  defects  and  faults  of  4  Paradise  Lost '  (for  faults 
and  defects  every  work  of  man  must  have),  it  is  the 
business  of  impartial  criticism  to  discover.  As,  in  display- 
ing the  excellence  of  Milton,  I  have  not  made  long  quo- 
tations, because  of  selecting  beauties  there  had  been  no 
end,  I  shall  in  the  same  general  manner  mention  that 
which  seems  to  deserve  censure ;  for  what  Englishman 


EPIC  POETRY.  345 

can  take  delight  in  transcribing  passages  which,  if  they 
lessen  the  reputation  of  Milton,  diminish  in  some  degree 
the  honor  of  our  country  ?  " 

Coleridge,  in  his  "  Literary  Remains,"  gives  a  criticism 
of  the  "  Paradise  Lost,"  parts  of  which  are  valuable. 
He  appears  to  rank  Milton  as  an  epic  poet  above  Homer 
and  above  Dante.  Lastly,  Mr.  Hallam,  in  his  "  History 
of  European  Literature,"  while  he  does  not  fail  to  point 
out  several  defects  in  "  Paradise  Lost,"  which  Addison 
and  other  critics  had  overlooked,  yet  inclines  to  place 
the  poem,  as  a  whole,  above  the  "  Divina  Commedia  " 
of  Dante. 

In  our  examination  of  the  poem,  we  shall  consider, 
1,  the  choice  of  subject ;  2,  the  artistic  structure  of  the 
work  ;  3,  details  in  the  mode  of  treatment,  whether 
relating  to  personages,  or  events,  or  poetical  scenery  ; 
4,  the  style,  metre,  and  language  of  the  poem. 

1.  With  regard  to  the  choice  of  subject,  it  has  been 
repeatedly  commended  in  the  highest  terms.  Cole- 
ridge, for  instance,  says,  "  In  Homer,  the  supposed 
importance  of  the  subject,  as  the  first  effort  of  con- 
federated Greece,  is  an  after-thought  of  the  critics; 
and  the  interest,  such  as  it  is,  derived  from  the  events 
themselves,  as  distinguished  from  the  manner  of  repre- 
senting them,  is  very  languid  to  all  but  Greeks.  It  is 
a  Greek  poem.  The  superiority  of  the  '  Paradise 
Lost '  is  obvious  in  this  respect,  that  the  interest  tran- 
scends the  limits  of  a  nation." 

There  cannot,  of  course,  be  two  opinions  with  regard 
to  the  importance  and  universal  interest  of  the  subject 
of  the  "Paradise  Lost,"  considered  in  itself;  but 
whether  it  is  a  surpassingly  good  subject  for  an  epic 
poem,  is  a  different  question.  One  obvious  difficulty 
connected  with  it  is  its  brevity,  and  deficiency  in  inci- 


346  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

dent :  it  is  not  sufficiently  complex.  Compare  the 
subjects  chosen  by  Homer,  Virgil,  and  Tasso.  The 
wrath  of  Achilles,  its  causes,  its  consequences,  its 
implacability  in  spite  of  the  most  urgent  entreaties, 
its  final  appeasement,  and  the  partial  reparation  of  the 
calamities  to  which  it  had  led,  form  one  entire  whole, 
the  development  of  which  admits  of  an  inexhaustible 
variety  in  the  management  of  the  details.  Similarly, 
the  settlement  of  ^Eneas  in  Italy,  involving  an  account, 
by  way  of  episode,  in  the  second  and  third  books  of 
the  "  ^Eneid,"  of  the  circumstances  under  which  he  had 
been  driven  from  Troy,  with  a  description  of  the  obsta- 
cles which  were  interposed  to  that  settlement,  whether 
by  divine  or  human  agency,  and  of  the  means  by 
which  these  obstacles  were  finally  overcome,  and  the 
end  foreshadowed  from  the  commencement  attained,  — 
this  subject  again,  though  forming  one  whole,  and 
capable  of  being  embraced  in  a  single  complex  concep- 
tion, presents  an  indefinite  number  of  parts  and  inci- 
dents suitable  for  poetic  treatment.  In  both  cases, 
tradition  supplied  the  poet  with  a  large  original  stock 
of  materials;  upon  which,  again,  his  imagination  was 
free  to  re-act,  and  either  invent,  modify,  or  suppress, 
according  to  the  requirements  of  his  art.  In  Tasso's 
great  epic,  the  subject  of  which  is  the  triumphant 
conclusion  of  the  first  crusade,  and  the  deliverance  of 
Jerusalem  from  the  unbelievers,  the  materials  are  evi- 
dently so  abundant  that  the  poet's  skill  has  to  be  exer- 
cised in  selection,  rather  than  in  expansion.  Now,  let 
us  see  how  the  case  stands  with  regard  to  Milton's 
subject.  Here  the  materials  consist  of  the  first  three 
chapters  in  the  Book  of  Genesis,  and  a  few  verses  in 
the  Apocalypse ;  there  is  absolutely  nothing  more. 
But  it  may  be  said,  that  as  Tasso  has  invented  many 
incidents,  and  Virgil  also,  so  Milton  had  full  liberty  to 


EPIC   POETRY.  347 

amplify,  out  of  the  resources  of  his  own  imagination, 
the  brief  and  simple  notices  by  which  Scripture  con- 
veys the  narrative  of  the  fall  of  man.  Here,  however, 
his  subject  hampers  him,  and  rightly  so.  The  subjects 
taken  by  Virgil  and  Tasso  fall  within  the  range  of 
ordinary  human  experience ;  whatever  they  might  in- 
vent, therefore,  in  addition  to  the  materials  which  they 
had  to  their  hands,  provided  it  were  conceived  with 
true*  poetic  feeling,  and  were  of  a  piece  with  the  other 
portions  of  the  poem,  would  be  strictly  homogeneous 
with  the  entire  subject-matter.  But  the  nature  of 
Milton's  subject  did  not  allow  him  this  liberty  of 
amplification  and  expansion.  That  which  is  recorded 
of  the  fall  of  man  forms  a  unique  chapter  in  history ; 
all  experience  presents  us  with  nothing  like  it ;  and 
the  danger  is,  lest  if  we  add  any  thing  of  our  own  to 
the  narration  —  so  brief,  so  apparently  simple,  yet 
withal  so  profoundly  mysterious  —  which  is  presented 
to  us  in  Holy  Writ,  we  at  last,  without  intending  it, 
produce  something  quite  unlike  our  original.  Whether 
Milton  has  succeeded  in  avoiding  this  danger,  is  a  point 
which  we  shall  consider  presently  ;  but  that  he  felt  the 
difficulty  is  clear,  for  he  has  avoided  as  much  as  possi- 
ble inventing  any  new  incident,  and,  to  gain  the  length 
required  for  an  epic  poem,  has  introduced  numerous 
long  dialogues  and  descriptive  passages. 

2.  The  internal  structure  of  this  poem,  as  a  work  of 
jirt,  has  been  admired  by  more  than  one  distinguished 
critic.  There  is,  Coleridge  observes,  a  totality  observ- 
able in  the  "  Paradise  Lost :  "  it  has  a  definite  begin- 
ning, middle,  and  end,  such  as  few  other  epic  poems 
can  boast  of.  The  first  line  of  the  poem  speaks  of 
the  disobedience  of  our  first  parents  ;  the  evil  power 
which  led  them  to  disobey  is  then  referred  to  ;  and 
the  circumstances  of  its  revolt  and  overthrow  are 


348  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

briefly  given.  The  steps  by  which  Satan  proceeds  on 
his  mission  of  temptation  are  described  in  the  second 
and  third  books.  In  the  fourth,  Adam  and  Eve  are 
first  introduced.  Part  of  the  fifth,  the  sixth,  seventh, 
and  eighth  books  are  episodical,  and  contain  the  story 
in  detail  of  the  war  in  heaven  between  the  good  and 
the  rebel  angels,  the  final  overthrow  and  expulsion  of 
the  latter,  and  the  creation  of  the  earth  and  man.  All 
this  is  related  to  Adam  by  the  angel  Raphael,  to  serve 
him  by  way  of  warning,  lest  he  also  should  fall  into 
the  sin  of  disobedience  and  revolt.  In  the  ninth  book 
occurs  the  account  of  the  actual  transgression.  In  the 
tenth  we  have  the  sentence  pronounced,  and  some  of 
the  immediate  consequences  of  the  fall  described.  The 
greater  part  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  books  is 
another  episode,  being  the  unfolding  to  Adam,  by  the 
archangel  Michael,  partly  in  vision,  partly  by  way  of 
narrative,  of  the  future  fortunes  of  his  descendants 
At  the  end  of  the  twelfth  book  we  have  the  expulsion 
of  Adam  and  Eve  out  of  Paradise,  with  which  the 
poem  naturally  closes. 

"The  Paradise  Lost"  thus  forms  one  connected 
whole ,  and  it  is  worked  out  with  great  vigor  and  care- 
fulness of  treatment  throughout.  Many  passages,  espe- 
cially at  the  beginnings  of  the  books,  have  a  character 
of  unsurpassed  dignity  and  sublimity ;  the  language, 
though  often  rough  or  harsh,  and  sometimes  grammati- 
cally faulty,  is  never  feeble  or  wordy ;  and  a  varied 
learning  supplies  the  poet  with  abundant  material  for 
simile  and  illustration.  Still  the  difficulty  before  men- 
tioned, as  inherent  in  the  choice  of  the  subject,  seems 
to  extend  its  evil  influence  over  the  structure  of  the 
poem.  The  fact  of  his  materials  being  so  scanty, 
obliged  Milton  to  have  recourse  to  episodes ;  hence  the 
long  narratives  of  Raphael  and  Michael.  Through 


EPIC   POETRY.  349 

nearly  six  entire  books,  out  of  the  twelve  of  which  the 
poem  is  composed,  the  main  action  is  interrupted  and 
in  suspense,  —  a  thing  which  it  is  difficult  to  justify 
upon  any  rules  of  poetic  art.  For  what  is  an  episode  ? 
It  is  a  story  within  a  story ;  it  is  to  an  epic  poem  what 
a  parenthesis  is  to  a  sentence  ;  and  just  as  a  paren- 
thesis, unless  carefully  managed  and  kept  within 
narrow  limits,  is  likely  to  obscure  the  meaning  of  the 
main  sentence,  so  an  episode,  if  too  long,  or  unskilfully 
dovetailed  into  the  rest  of  the  work,  is  apt  to  introduce 
a  certain  confusion  into  an  epic  poem.  Let  us  observe 
the  manner  in  which  the  father  of  poetry,  —  he  who, 
in  the  words  of  Horace,  — 

"  Nil  molitur  inepte,"  — 
of  whom  Pope  says, l  — 

"  Thence  form  your  judgment,  thence  your  maxims  bring, 
And  trace  the  Muses  upward  to  their  spring,"  — 

Let  us  see  how  far  Homer  indulged  in  episode.  The 
use  of  the  episode  is  twofold :  it  serves  either  to  make 
known  to  the  reader  events  antecedent  or  subsequent 
in  time  to  the  action  of  the  piece,  or  to  describe  con- 
temporary matters  which,  though  connected  with,  are 
not  essential  to,  and  do  not  help  forward,  the  main 
action.  A  long  narrative  of  what  is  past,  and  a  long 
prophecy  of  what  is  to  come,  are  therefore  both  alike 
episodical.  Of  the  former  we  have  an  example  in  the 
second  and  third  books  of  the  "  JSneid  ; "  of  the  latter, 
in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  books  of  the  "  Paradise 
Lost."  As  an  instance  of  the  contemporary  episode, 
we  may  take  the  story  of  Olinda  and  Sofronio,  in  the 
second  canto  of  the  "  Gerusalemme  Liberata."  Now 
Homer,  although  in  the  "  Iliad  "  he  informs  us  of  many 
1  Essay  on  Criticism,  i. 


350  HISTOEY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

circumstances  connected  with  the  siege  of  Troy,  which 
had  happened  before  the  date  when  the  poem  com- 
mences, seems  purposely  to  avoid  communicating  them 
in  a  formal  episode.  He  scatters  and  interweaves 
these  notices  of  past  events  in  the  progress  of  the  main 
action  so  naturally,  yet  with  such  perfection  of  art, 
that  he  gains  the  same  object  which  is  the  pretext  for 
historical  episodes  with  other  poets,  but  without  that 
interruption  and  suspension  of  the  main  design,  which, 
however  skilfully  managed,  seems  hardly  consistent 
with  equal  perfection.  Thus  Achilles,  in  the  long 
speech  in  the  ninth  book,  to  the  envoys  who  are  en- 
treating him  to  succor  the  defeated  Greeks,  introduces, 
without  effort,  an  account  of  much  of  the  previous 
history  of  the  great  siege.  So  again  Diomede,  in  the 
second  book,  when  dissuading  the  .Greeks  from  embark- 
ing and  returning  home,  refers  naturally  to  the  events 
which  occurred  at  Aulis  before  the  expedition  started, 
in  a  few  lines,  which,  as  it  were,  present  to  us  the 
whole  theory  of  the  siege  in  the  clearest  light.  Homer, 
therefore,  strictly  speaking,  avoids  in  the  "  Iliad  "  the 
use  of  the  episode  altogether.  Virgil,  on  the  other 
hand,  adopts  it;  the  second  and  third  books  of  the 
"^Eneid"  are  an  episodical  narrative,  in  which  jEneas 
relates  to  Dido  the  closing  scenes  at  Troy,  and  his  own 
subsequent  adventures  in  the  Mediterranean.  Tasso 
uses  the  episode  very  sparingly,  and  prefers  the  contem- 
porary to  the  historical  form.  But,  when  we  come  to 
the  "  Paradise  Lost,"  we  find  that  nearly  half  the  poem 
is  episodical.  Several  disadvantages  hence  arise.  First 
of  all,  the  fact  implies  a  defect  in  point  of  art ;  since 
the  action  or  story  developed  either  in  a  dramatic  or  an 
epic  poem  ought  to  be  so  important,  and  so  complete  in 
itself,  as  not  to  require  the  introduction  of  explanatory 
or  decorative  statements  nearly  as  long  as  the  progres- 


EPIC   POETRY.  £51 

sive  portions  of  the  poem.  If  the  episode  be  explan- 
atory, it  proves  that  the  story  is  not  sufficiently  clear, 
simple,  and  complete  for  epic  purposes  ;  if  decorative, 
that  it  is  not  important  enough  to  engross  the  reader's 
attention  without  the  addition  of  extraneous  matter. 
In  either  case,  the  art  is  defective.  Again,  this  arrange- 
ment is  the  source  of  confusion  and  obscurity.  A 
reader  not  very  well  acquainted  with  the  peculiar 
structure  of  the  poem,  opens  the  "  Paradise  Lost "  at 
hazard,  and  finds  himself,  to  his  astonishment,  —  in  a 
work  whose  subject  is  the  loss  of  Paradise,  —  carried 
back  to  the  creation  of  light,  or  forward  to  the  building 
of  the  tower  of  Babel. 

3.  We  are  now  to  consider  in  some  detail,  hoV  Milton 
has  treated  his  subject,  how  he  has  dealt  with  the 
difficulties  which  seem  inherent  in  the  selection.  A 
certain  degree  of  amplification  —  the  materials  being 
so  scanty  —  was  unavoidable:  has  he  managed  the 
amplification  successfully  ?  In  some  instances  he  cer- 
tainly has  ;  for  example,  in  the  account  of  the  tempta- 
tion of  Eve,  in  the  ninth  book,  the  logic  of  which  is 
very  ingeniously  wrought  out  by  supposing  the  serpent 
to  ascribe  his  power  of  speech  and  newly  awakened 
intelligence  to  the  effects  of  partaking  of  the  fruit  of  the 
forbidden  tree,  and  by  putting  into  his  mouth  various 
plausible  arguments  designed  to  satisfy  Eve  as  to  the 
motives  of  divine  prohibition.  But  in  other  passages 
we  cannot  but  think  that  the  amplification  has  been 
most  unsuccessful.  For  example,  take  the  war  in 
heaven.  In  the  Apocalypse  (chap,  xii.)  it  is  mentioned 
in  these  few  words  :  "  And  there  was  war  in  heaven : 
Michael  and  his  angels  fought  with  the  dragon  ;  and 
the  dragon  fought,  and  his  angels,  and  they  prevailed 
not,  neither  was  their  place  found  any  more  in  heaven. 
And  the  great  dragon  was  cast  out,  that  old  serpent 


352  HISTOKY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

who  is  called  the  Devil  and  Satan,  who  seduceth  the 
whole  world :  and  he  was  cast  unto  the  earth,  and  his 
angels  were  cast  out  with  him."  Such,  and  no  more 
than  this,  was  the  knowledge  imparted  in  prophetic 
vision  to  the  inspired  apostle  in  Patmos,  regarding  these 
supernatural  events.  Milton  has  expanded  this  brief 
text  marvellously :  the  narrative  of  the  revolt  and  war 
in  heaven  takes  up  two  entire  books.  And  strange 
work  indeed  he  has  made  of  it !  The  actual,  material 
swords  and  spears ;  the  invention  of  cannons,  cannon- 
balls,  and  gunpowder  by  the  rebel  angels ;  the  grim 
Puritanical  pleasantry  which  is  put  in  the  mouth  of 
Satan  when  first  making  proof  of  this  notable  discovery, 
just  such  as  one  might  fancy  issuing  from  the  lips  of 
Cromwell  or  Ireton  on  giving  orders  to  batter  down  a 
cathedral ;  the  hurling  of  mountains  at  one  another  by 
the  adverse  hosts,  a  conceit  borrowed  from  Greek  my- 
thology and  the  war  of  the  Titans  against  the  gods,  — 

"  Ter  sunt  conati  imponere  Pelio  Ossam 
Scilicet,  atque  Ossae  frondosum  involvere  Olympum;" 

lastly,  the  vivid  description,  exceedingly  fine  and  poet- 
ical in  its  way,  of  the  chariot  of  the  Messiah  going 
forth  to  battle,  drawn  by  four  cherubic  shapes,  —  all 
this,  though  fitting  and  appropriate  enough  if  the 
subject  were  the  gods  of  Olympus  or  of  Valhalla, 
grates  discordantly  upon  our  feelings  when  it  is  pre- 
sented as  a  suitable  picture  of  the  mysterious  event 
which  we  call  the  fall  of  the  angels,  and  as  an  expan- 
sion of  the  particulars  recorded  in  the  sacred  text.  In 
truth,  Milton  is  nowhere  so  solemn  and  impressive  as 
in  those  passages  where  he  reproduces  almost  verbatim 
the  exact  words  of  Scripture  ;  e.g.,  in  the  passage  in  the 
tenth  book,  describing  the  judgment  passed  upon  man 
after  his  transgression.  Where  he  gives  the  freest 


EPIC   POETRY.  353 

play  to  his  invention,  the  result  is  least  happy.  The 
dialogues  in  heaven,  to  say  nothing  of  the  undisguised 
Arianism  which  disfigures  them,  are  either  painful  or 
simply  absurd,  according  as  one  regards  them  seriously 
or  not.  Pope,  whose  discernment  nothing  escaped,  has 
touched  this  weak  point  in  his  "  Imitations  of  Horace."  l 
Hallam  himself  has  admitted  that  a  certain  grossness 
and  materialism  attach  to  Milton's  heaven  and  heavenly 
inhabitants,  far  unlike  the  pure  and  ethereal  colors  with 
which  Dante  invests  the  angels  and  blessed  spirits  pre- 
sented in  his  "  Paradiso." 

Turning  now  to  the  personal  element  in  the  poem, 
we  find,  as  Johnson  shows  at  length,  that,  as  the  subject 
chosen  is  beyond  the  sphere  of  human  experience,  so 
the  characters  described  are  deficient  in  human  interest. 
So  far  as  this  is  not  the  case,  it  arises  from  Milton  hav- 
ing broken  through  the  trammels  which  the  fundamental 
conditions  of  his  subject  imposed  on*  him.  Of  all  the 
personages  in  the  "  Paradise  Lost,"  there  is  none  whose 
proceedings  interest  us,  and  even  whose  sufferings 
engage  our  sympathies,  like  those  of  Satan.  But  this 
is  because  he  is  not  represented  as  the  Bible  represents 
him,  —  namely,  as  the  type  and  essential  principle  of  all 
that  is  evil  and  hateful.  There  seems  to  be  a  conflict 
in  the  mind  of  Milton  between  the  Scriptural  type  of 
Satan,  and  the  Greek  conception  of  Prometheus.  The 
fallen  archangel,  driven  from  heaven  and  doomed  to 
everlasting  misery  by  superior  power,  yet  with  will 
unconquered  and  unconquerable,  cannot  but  recall  the 
image  of  the  mighty  Titan  chained  to  the  rock  by  the 
vengeance  of  Jove,  yet  unalterably  defiant  and  erect 
in  soul.  It  is  clear  that  the  character  of  Satan  had 
greater  charms  for  Milton's  imagination,  and  is  there- 
fore presented  more  prominently,  and  worked  out  with 

1  "  In  quibbles  angel  and  archangel  join,"  &c. 
30* 


354  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

more  care,  than  any  other  in  the  poem.  Devoted,  him- 
self, to  the  cause  of  insurrection  on  earth,  he  sympa- 
thizes against  his  will  with  the  author  of  rebellion  in 
heaven,  —  against  his  will ;  for  he  seems  to  be  well 
aware,  and  to  be  continually  reminding  himself,  that 
Satan  ought  to  be  represented  as  purely  evil :  yet  he 
constantly  places  language  in  his  mouth  which  is  incon- 
sistent with  such  a  conception.  For  instance :  — 

"  Yet  not  for  those, 
Nor  what  the  potent  Victor  in  his  rage 
Can  else  inflict,  do  I  repent  or  change, 
Though  changed  in  outward  lustre,  that  fixed  mind 
And  high  disdain  from  sense  of  injured  merit, 
That  with  the  Mightiest  urged  me  to  contend." 

Is  not  this  much  more  like  Shelley's  Prometheus  than 
the  Satan  of  the  Bible  ?  It  has  been  often  said,  and  it 
seems  true,  that  the  hero  or  prominent  character  of  the 
"  Paradise  Lost "  is  Satan.  Throughout  the  first  three 
books  the  attention  is  fixed  upon  his  proceedings. 
Even  after  Adam  and  Eve  are  introduced,  which  is  not 
till  the  fourth  book,  the  main  interest  centres  upon 
him ;  for  they  are  passive,  he  is  active ;  they  are  the 
subject  of  plots,  he  the  framer  of  them;  they,  living 
on  without  any  definite  aim,  are  represented  as  falling 
from  their  happy  state  through  weakness,  and  in  a  sort 
of  helpless  predestined  manner  (we  speak,  of  course, 
of  Milton's  representation  only,  not  of  the  fall  as  it 
was  in  itself)  ;  while  he  is  fixed  to  one  object,  fertile 
in  expedients,  courageous  in  danger,  and,  on  the  whole, 
successful  in  his  enterprise.  Clearly  Satan  is  the  hero 
of  the  "  Paradise  Lost."  And,  apart  from  the  incon- 
gruity referred  to,  the  character  is  drawn  in  such  grand 
outlines,  and  presents  such  a  massive  strength  and  sub- 
limity, as  none  but  a  poet  could  have  portrayed.  The 
following  lines  describe  him,  when  marshalling  the 
hosts  of  his  followers  :  — 


'EPIC   POETRY.  355 

"  He,  above  the  rest 
In  shape  and  gesture  proudly  eminent, 
Stood  like  a  tower :  his  form  had  not  yet  lost 
All  its  original  brightness,  nor  appeared 
Less  than  archangel  mined,  and  the  excess 
Of  glory  obscured :  as  when  the  sun  new  risen 
Looks  through  the  horizontal  misty  air, 
Shorn  of  his  beams ;  or  from  behind  the  moon, 
In  dim  eclipse,  disastrous  twilight  sheds 
On  half  the  nations,  and  with  fear  of  •hange 
Perplexes  monarchs.    Darkened  so  yet  shone 
Above  them  all  the  archangel." 

He  consoles  himself  for  his  banishment  from   heaven 
with  reflections  worthy  of  a  Stoic  philosopher :  — 

"Farewell,  happy  fields, 

Where  joy  forever  dwells !    Hail,  horrors !    Hail, 
Infernal  world !    And  thou,  profoundest  hell, 
Receive  thy  new  possessor,  —  one  who  brings 
A  mind  not  to  be  changed  by  place  or  time : 
The  mind  is  its  own  place,  and  in  itself 
Can  make  a  heaven  of  hell,  a  hell  of  heaven. 
What  matter  where,  if  I  be  still  the  same, 
And  what  I  should  be,  —  all  but  less  than  he 
Whom  thunder  hath  made  greater  ?    Here  at  least 
We  shall  be  free :  the  Almighty  hath  not  built 
Here  for  his  envy,  will  not  drive  us  hence. 
Here  we  may  reign  secure ;  and,  in  my  choice, 
To  reign  is  worth  ambition,  though  in  hell : 
Better  to  reign  in  hell  than  serve  in  heaven." 

In  much  of  the  portraiture  of  Adam,  Milton  seems 
to  be  unconsciously  describing  himself.  His  manly 
beauty,  his  imperious  claim  to  absolute  rule  over  the 
weaker  sex,  the  grasp  of  his  intellect,  and  the  delight 
he  feels  in  its  exercise,  his  strength  of  will,  yet  suscep- 
tibility to  the  influence  of  female  charms,  —  all  these 
characteristics,  assigned  by  the  poet  to  Adam,  are  well 
known  to  have  in  an  eminent  degree  belonged  to  him- 
self. Eve,  on  the  other  hand,  is  represented  as  a  soft, 
yielding,  fascinating  being,  who,  with  all  her  attrac- 


356  HISTOEY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

tions,  is,  in  moral  and  intellectual  things,  rather  a 
hinderance  than  a  help  to  her  nobler  consort ;  and  there 
are  many  suppressed  taunts  and  thinly  veiled  allusions, 
which,  while  they  illustrate  Milton's  contempt  for  the 
sex,  and  somewhat  Oriental  view  of  woman's  relation 
to  man,  can  scarcely  be  misunderstood  as  glancing  at 
his  own  domestic  trials.  To  illustrate  what  has  been 
said,  we  will  quote  a  few  passages.  The  first  is  one  of 
surpassing  beauty  :  — 

"  Two  of  far  nobler  shape,  erect  and  tall, 
Godlike  erect,  with  native  honor  clad, 
In  naked  majesty,  seemed  lords  of  all ; 
And  worthy  seemed,  for  in  their  looks  divine 
The  image  of  their  glorious  Maker  shone : 


For  contemplation  he  and  valor  formed ; 

For  softness  she,  and  sweet  attractive  grace ; 

He  for  God  only,  she  for  God  in  him: 

His  fair  large  front  and  eye  sublime  declared 

Absolute  rule ;  and  hyacinthine  locks 

Round  from  his  parted  forelock  manly  hung 

Clustering,  but  not  beneath  his  shoulders  broad."  —  Book  iv. 

Eve  thus   unfolds  her  conception  of   the   relation  in 
which  she  stands  to  Adam :  — 

"  To  whom  thus  Eve,  with  perfect  beauty  adorned:  — 
*  My  author  and  disposer,  what  thou  bidst 
Unargued  I  obey:  so  God  ordains; 
God  is  thy  law,  thou  mine:  to  know  no  more 
Is  woman's  happiest  knowledge  and  her  praise.'  "—Ibid. 

Adam,  while  expressing  the  same  view,  owns  the  invin- 
cibility of  woman's  charm  :  — 

"  For  well  I  understand  in  the  prime  end 
Of  nature  her  the  inferior,  in  the  mind 
And  inward  faculties,  which  most  excel ; 
In  outward  also  her  resembling  less 
His  image  who  made  both,  and  less  expressing 
The  character  of  that  dominion  given 


EPIC  POETRY.  357 

O'er  other  creatures ;  yet  when  I  approach 

Her  loveliness,  so  absolute  she  seems, 

And  in  herself  complete,  so  well  to  know 

Her  own,  that  what  she  wills  to  do  or  say 

Seems  wisest,  virtuousest,  discreetest,  best ; 

All  higher  knowledge  in  her  presence  falls 

Degraded ;  wisdom  in  discourse  with  her 

Loses  discountenanced,  and  like  folly  shows."  —  Book  viii. 

Even  in  the  fall,  his  superior  intellect  asserts  itself:  — 

"  He  scrupled  not  to  eat 
Against  his  better  knowledge ;  not  deceived, 
But  fondly  overcome  with  female  charm."  —  Book  ix. 

Is  there  not,  again,  a  touch  of  autobiography  in  the  re- 
proaches which  Adam  heaps  upon  Eve  in  the  following 
lines?  — 

"  This  mischief  had  not  then  befallen, 
And  more  that  shall  befall,  —  innumerable 
Disturbances  on  earth  through  female  snares, 
And  straight  conjunction  with  this  sex ;  for  either 
He  never  shall  find  out  fit  mate,  but  such 
As  some  misfortune  brings  him,  or  mistake ; 
Or  whom  he  wishes  most  shall  seldom  gain, 
Through  her  perverseness,  but  shall  see  her  gained 
By  a  far  worse,"  &c.  — Book  x. 

Eve's  beautiful  submission  makes  her  stern  lord  relent. 
It  is  well  known  that  Milton's  first  wife,  in  similar  sup- 
pliant guise,  appeased  his  resentment,  and  obtained  her 
pardon :  — 

"  She  ended  weeping;  and  her  lowly  plight 
Immovable,  till  peace  obtained  from  fault 
Acknowledged  and  deplored,  in  Adam  wrought 
Commiseration ;  soon  his  heart  relented 
Towards  her,  his  life  so  late,  and  sole  delight, 
Now  at  his  feet  submissive  in  distress." — Ibid. 

The  seraph  Abdiel  is  one  of  the  grandest  of  poetic 
creations.  Led  away  at  first  in  the  ranks  of  the  rebel 
angels,  he  recoils  with  horror  when  he  learns  the  full 


358  HISTOBY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

scope  of  their  revolt,  and   returns   to  the  courts  of 
heaven :  — 

"  So  spake  the  seraph  Abdiel,  faithful  found 
Among  the  faithless,  faithful  only  he; 
Among  innumerable  false,  unmoved, 
Unshaken,  unseduced,  unterrified, 
His  loyalty  he  kept,  his  love,  his  zeal : 
Nor  number  nor  example  with  him  wrought 
To  swerve  from  truth,  or  change  his  constant  mind, 
Though  single.    From  amidst  them  forth  he  passed 
Long  way  through  hostile  scorn,  which  he  sustained 
Superior,  nor  of  violence  feared  aught ; 
And,  with  retorted  scorn,  his  back  he  turned 
On  those  proud  towers  to  swift  destruction  doomed.  —  Book  v. 

'By poetical  scenery  is  meant  the  imaginary  framework 
in  space  in  which  the  poem  is  set,  —  the  stage,  with  its 
accessories,  on  which  the  characters  move,  and  the  ac- 
tion is  performed.  In  the  "  Paradise  Lost,"  as  in  the 
"  Divina  Commedia,"  this  is  no  narrower  than  the  en- 
tire compass  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  But  there 
is  a  remarkable  difference  between  them,  which,  in 
point  of  art,  operates  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  Eng- 
lish poet.  In  the  fourteenth  centur}-  no  one  doubted 
the  truth  of  the  Ptolemaic  system  ;  and  Dante's  astron- 
omy is  as  stable  and  self-consistent  as  his  theology. 
The  earth  is  motionless  at  the  centre ;  round  it,  fixed  in 
concentric  spheres,  revolve  the  "  seven  planets,"  of 
which  the  moon  is  the  first,  and  the  sun  the  fourth : 
enclosing  these  follow  in  succession  the  sphere  of  the 
fixed  stars,  that  of  the  empyrean,  and  that  described  as 
the  primum  mobile.  The  geography  of  the  Inferno,  an 
abyss  in  the  form  of  an  inverted  cone,  extending  down- 
wards in  successive  steps  to  the  centre  of  the  earth, 
and  that  of  the  Purgatorio,  a  mountain  at  the  Antip- 
odes, rising  in  the  form  of  a  proper  cone  by  similar 
steps,  till  the  summit  is  reached  whence  purified  souls 


EPIC   POETRY.  359 

are  admitted  to  the  lowest  sphere  of  the  Paradiso,  are 
equally  logical  and  distinct.  But  in  the  seventeenth 
century  the  Copernican  system  was  rapidly  gaining  the 
belief  of  all  intelligent  men  ;  and  Milton,  in  his  poem, 
wavers  between  the  old  astronomy  and  the  new.  In 
the  first  three  books  the  Ptolemaic  system  prevails : 
upon  any  other,  Satan's  expedition  in  search  of  the 
new-created  earth  becomes  unintelligible.  After  strug- 
gling through  chaos,  he  lands  upon  the  outermost  of 
the  spheres  that  enclose  the  earth :  — 

"  Meanwhile  upon  the  firm  opacous  globe 
Of  this  round  world,  whose  first  convex  divides 
The  luminous  inferior  orbs,  enclosed 
From  chaos  and  the  inroad  of  darkness  old, 
Satan  alighted  walks."  —  Book  iii. 

Hither  "  fly  all  things  transitory  and  vain ;  "  hither 
come  the  "  eremites  and  friars  "  whom  Milton  regards 
with  true  Puritanic  aversion,  and  those  who  thought  to 
make  sure  of  Paradise  by  putting  on  the  Franciscan  or 
Dominican  habit  on  their  death-bed :  — 

"  They  pass  the  planets  seven,  and  pass  the  fixed, 
And  that  crystalline  sphere  whose  balance  weighs 
The  trepidation  talked,  and  that  first  moved." 

On  his  way  down  from  hence  to  the  earth,  Satan, 
still  in  accordance  with  the  Ptolemaic  system,  passes 
through  the  fixed  stars,  and  visits  the  sun.  But  in  sub- 
sequent parts  of  the  poem  an  astronomy  is  suggested 
which  revolutionizes  the  face  of  the  universe,  and  gives 
us  the  uncomfortable  feeling  that  all  that  has  gone 
before  is  unreal.  The  stability  of  the  earth  is  first 
questioned  in  the  fourth  book :  — 

"  Uriel  to  his  charge 

Returned  on  that  bright  beam,  whose  point  now  raised 
Bore  him  slope  downward  to  the  sun,  now  fallen 


360  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Beneath  the  Azores ;  whether  the  prime  orb, 
Incredible  how  swift,  had  thither  rolled 
Diurnal,  or  this  less  volubil  earth, 
By  shorter  fliyht  to  the  east,  had  left  him  there." 

In  the  eighth  book,  Adam  questions  Raphael  as  to 
the  celestial  motions,  but  is  doubtfully  answered :  upon 
either  theory,  he  is  told,  the  goodness  and  wisdom  of 
God  can  be  justified ;  yet  the  archangel's  words  imply 
some  preference  for  the  Copernican  system :  — 

"  What  if  the  sun 

Be  centre  to  the  world,  and  other  stars, 
By  his  attractive  virtue  and  their  own 
Incited,  dance  about  him  various  rounds? 


Or  save  the  sun  his  labor,  and  that  swift 
Nocturnal  and  diurnal  rhomb  supposed, 
Invisible  else  above  all  stars,  the  wheel 
Of  day  and  night;  which  needs  not  thy  belief, 
If  earth,  industrious  of  herself ,  fetch  day 
Travelling  east,  and  with  her  part  averse 
From  the  sun's  beam  meet  night." 

4.  It  remains  to  say  a  few  words  upon  the  style, 
metre,  and  language  of  the  poem.  The  grandeur, 
pregnancy,  and  nobleness  of  the  first  are  indisputable. 
It  is,  however,  often  rugged  or  harsh,  owing  to  th& 
frequency  of  defects  in  the  versification.  It  is  distin^ 
guished  by  the  great  length  of  the  sentences :  the 
thread  of  thought  winding  on  through  many  a  paren- 
thesis or  subordinate  clause,  now  involving,  now  evolv* 
ing  itself,  yet  always  firmly  grasped,  and  resulting  in 
grammar  as  sound  as  the  intellectual  conception  is  dis- 
tinct. This  quality  of  style  is  perhaps  attributable  to 
Milton's  blindness:  he  could  not  write  down  as  he  com- 
posed, nor  could  an  amanuensis  be  always  at  hand ;  he 
therefore  may  have  acted  on  the  principle  that  one  long 
sentence  is  more  easily  remembered  than  two  or  three 
short  ones. 


EPIC   POETRY.  361 

A  series  of  'admirable  papers  upon  Milton's  versifica- 
tion may  be  found  in  Johnson's  "  Rambler."  To  it  the 
reader  is  referred,  the  subject  being  not  of  a  kind  to 
admit  of  cursory  treatment. 

The  language  of  the  poem  does  not  come  up  to  the 
standard  of  the  purest  English  writers  of  the  period. 
It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  Mil  tori,  having  the 
works  of  Bacon,  Shakspeare,  and  Hooker  before  him, 
could  think  himself  justified  in  using  the  strange  and 
barbarous  Latinisms  which  disfigure  the  "Paradise 
Lost."  Such  terms  as  "  procinct,"  "  battallious," 
*4parle,"  and  such  usages,  or  rather  usurpations,  of 
words,  as  "  frequent "  in  the  sense  of  "  crowded," 
"  pontifical  "  in  the  sense  of  "  bridge-making,"  "  obvi- 
ous "  for  "  meeting,"  "  dissipation  "  for  "  dispersion," 
and  "  pretended  "  for  "  drawn  before  "  (Latin  prceten- 
tus).t  were  never  employed  by  English  writers  before 
Milton,  and  have  never  been  employed  since. 

Nor  does  he  import  Latin  words  only,  but  Latin  and 
even  Greek  constructions.  Examples  of  Greek  idioms 
are,  "  And  knew  not  eating  death,"  and  "  O  miserable 
of  happy "  (adJMs  «x  ^imapiov^).  Latin  idioms  occur 
frequently,  and  sometimes  cause  obscurity,  because, 
through  the  absence  of  inflections  in  English,  the  same 
collocation  of  words  which  is  perfectly  clear  in  Latin  is 
often  capable  of  two  or  three  different  meanings  in 
English.  A  few  examples  are  subjoined  :  "  Or  hear'st 
thou  rather  "  (i.e.,  wouldst  thou  rather  be  addressed 
as)  "  pure  ethereal  stream  ;  "  "  Of  pure,  now  purer 
air  meets  his  approach ; "  "  So  as  not  either  to  pro- 
voke, or  dread  new  war  provoked "  (where  it  is  not 
clear  at  first  sight,  whether  "provoked"  should  be 
rendered  by  "  suscitatum,"  or  "  lacessitos  ")  ;  "How 
earnest  thou  speakable  of  mute,"  &c. 

After  all,  it  is  easy  to  be  hypercritical  in  these  mat- 

31 


362  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

ters.  The  defence,  however,  of  such  a  minute  analysis 
lies  in  the  fact  of  its  being  exercised  on  a  work  truly 
great.  We  notice  the  flaws  in  a  diamond,  because  it  is 
a  diamond.  No  one  would  take  the  trouble  to  point 
out  the  grammatical  or  metrical  slips  in  Blackinore's 
"  Creation."  It  is  from  the  conviction  that  the  renown 
of  the  "  Paradise  Lost "  is,  and  deserves  to  be,  imper- 
ishable, that  critics  do  not  fear  to  show  that  it  is  wrong 
to  regard  it  with  a  blind,  indiscriminate  admiration. 
Of  the  father  of  poetry  himself  it  was  said,  — 

"  Aliquando  bonus  dormitat  Homerus." 

In  a  note  are  given  a  few  passages  from  the  poem, 
which  have  passed  into  proverbs,  current  sayings,  or 
standard  quotations.1 

Dramatic  Poetry. —  Its  kinds:    Shakspeare,  Addison,  Milton. 

Invented  by  the  Greeks,  the  drama  attained  in  their 
hands  a  perfection  which  it  has  never  since  surpassed. 
To  them  we  owe  the  designation  of  tragedy  and  com- 
edy, the  definitions  of  each  kind  according  to  its  nature 
and  end,  and  the  division  into  acts.  The  leading  char- 
acteristics of  dramatic  composition  have  remained  un- 

1  "  Awake,  arise,  or  be  forever  fallen." 

"  With  ruin  upon  ruin,  rout  on  rout, 
Confusion  worse  confounded.9' 

"  At  whose  sight  all  the  stars 
Hide  their  diminished  heads.'11 

"  Not  to  know  me,  argues  yourselves  unknown." 

"  Still  govern  thou  my  song, 
Urania,  emdfit  audience  find,  though  few." 

"  With  a  smile  that  glowed 
Celestial  rosy  red." 

"  And  over  them  triumphant  Death  his  dart 
Shook,  but  delayed  to  strike." 


DRAMATIC   POETRY.  363 

altered  ever  since ;  but  the  Greek  definition  of  tragedy 
was  gradually  restricted,  that  of  comedy  enlarged,  so 
that  it  became  necessary  to  invent  other  names  for 
intermediate  or  inferior  kinds.  With  the  Greeks,  a 
tragedy  meant "  the  representation  of  a  serious,  complete, 
and  important  action,"  and  might  involve  a  transition 
from  calamity  to  prosperity,  as  well  as  from  prosperity 
to  calamity.1  By  a  comedy  was  meant  a  representa- 
tion, tending  to  excite  laughter,  of  mean  and  ridicu- 
lous actions.  Thus  the  "  Eumenides "  of  JEschylus, 
the  "  Philoctetes "  of  Sophocles,  and  the  "  Alcestis," 
"  Helena,"  and  others  of  Euripides,  though  called  trage- 
dies, do  not  end  tragically  in  the  modern  sense,  but  the 
reverse.  But  by  degrees  it  came  to  be  considered  that 
every  tragedy  must  have  a  disastrous  catastrophe,  so  that 
a  new  term,  "  tragi-comedy,"  — which  seems  to  have  first 
arisen  in  Spain,  —  was  invented  to  suit  those  dramas  in 
which,  though  the  main  action  was  serious,  the  conclusion 
was  happy.  As  tragedy  assumed  a  narrower  meaning, 
comedy  obtained  one  proportionably  more  extensive.  Of 
this  a  notable  illustration  is  found  in  Dante,  who  though 
he  did  not  understand  by  the  "  tragic  style  "  what  we 
understand  by  it,  but  merely  the  style  of  grand  and 
sublime  poems  such  as  the  u^Eneid,"  yet  named  his  own 
great  work  "  La  Commedia,"  as  intending  to  rank  it 
with  a  great  variety  of  poems  in  the  middje  or  ordinary 
style,  not  sublime  enough  to  be  tragic,  and  not  pathetic 
enough  to  be  elegiac.  In  England  the  term  "  comedy  " 
was  used  all  through  the  Elizabethan  age  in  a  loose 
sense,  which  would  embrace  any  thing  between  a  tragi- 
comedy and  a  farce.  Thus  "  The  Merchant  of  Venice  " 
is  reckoned  among  the  comedies  of  Shakspeare,  though, 
except  for  the  admixture  of  comic  matter  in  the  minor 
characters,  it  is,  in  the  Greek  sense,  just  as  much  a 

1  Aristotle,  Poet.  6. 


364  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

tragedy  as  the  "  Alcestis."  In  the  seventeenth  century, 
the  term  began  to  be  restricted  to  plays  in  which  comic 
or  satirical  matter  preponderated.  A  shorter  and  more 
unpretending  species,  in  one  or  at  most  two  acts,  in 
which  any  sort  of  contrivance  or  trick  was  permissible 
in  order  to  raise  a  laugh,  so  that  the  action  were  not 
taken  out  of  the  sphere  of  real  life,  was  invented,  under 
the  name  of  "  farce,"  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

The  best  and  most  characteristic  of  English  plays 
belong  to  what  is  called  the  romantic  drama.  The 
classical  and  the  romantic  drama  represent  two  preva- 
lent modes  of  thought,  or  streams  of  opinion,  which, 
parting  from  each  other  and  becoming  strongly  con- 
trasted soon  after  the  revival  of  letters,  have  ever  since 
contended  for  the  empire  of  the  human  mind  in  Europe. 
The  readers  of  Mr.  Raskin's  striking  books  will  have 
learnt  a  great  deal  about  these  modes  of  thought,  and 
will,  perhaps,  have  imbibed  too  unqualified  a  dislike  for 
the  one,  and  reverence  for  the  other.  Referring  those 
who  desire  a  full  exposition  to  the  pages  of  that  elo- 
quent writer,  we  must  be  content  with  saying  here,  that 
the  classical  drama  was  cast  in  the  Grae  co-Roman 
mould,  and  subjected  to  the  rules  of  construction  (the 
dramatic  unities)  which  the  ancient  dramatists  ob- 
served ;  its  authors  being  generally  men  who  were 
deeply  imbued'  with  the  classical  spirit,  to  a  degree 
which  made  them  recoil  with  aversion  and  contempt 
from  the  spirit  and  the  products  of  the  ages  that  had 
intervened  between  themselves  and  the  antiquity  which 
they  loved.  On  the  other  hand,  the  romantic  drama, 
though  it  borrowed  much  of  its  formal  part  (e.  g.,  the 
division  into  acts,  the  prologue  and  epilogue,  the  occa- 
sional choruses,  &c.)  from  the  ancients,  was  founded 
upon  and  grew  out  of  the  romance  literature  of  the 
middle  ages ;  its  authors  being  generally  imbued  with 


DRAMATIC   POETRY.  365 

the  spirit  of  Christian  Europe,  such  as  the  mingled 
influences  of  Christianity  and  feudalism  had  formed  it. 
National  before  all ;  writing  for  audiences  in  whom 
taste  and  fine  intelligence  were  scantily  developed,  but 
in  whom  imagination  and  feeling  were  strong,  and  faith 
habitual,  —  the  dramatists  of  this  school  were  led  to 
reject  the  strict  rules  of  which  Athenian  culture  exacted 
the  observance.  To  gratify  the  national  pride  of  their 
hearers,  they  dramatized  large  portions  of  their  past 
history,  and  in  so  doing  scrupled  not  to  violate  the 
unity  of  action.  They  observed,  indeed,  this  rule  in 
their  tragedies,  at  least  in  the  best  of  them,  but  utter- 
ly disregarded  the  minor  unities  of  time  and  place, 
because  they  knew  that  they  could  trust  to  the  imagi- 
nation of  their  hearers  to  supply  any  shortcomings  in 
the  external  illusion.  In  the  play  of  "  Macbeth  "  many 
years  elapse,  and  the  scene  is  shifted  from  Scotland  to 
England  and  back  again  without  the  smallest  hesitation. 
The  result  is,  that  art  gains  in  one  way,  and  loses  in 
another.  We  are  spared  the  tedious  narratives  which 
are  rendered  necessary  in  the  classical  drama  by  the 
strict  limits  of  time  within  which  the  action  is  bounded. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  impression  produced,  being  less 
concentrated,  is  usually  feebler  and  less  determinate. 

It  would  be  a  waste  of  time  to  enter  here,  in  that 
cursory  way  which  alone  our  limits  w"ould  allow,  into 
any  critical  discussion  of  the  dramatic  genius  of  Shak- 
speare.  The  greatest  modern  critics  in  all  countries 
have  undertaken  the  task,  a  fact  sufficient  of  itself  to 
dispense  us  from  the  attempt.  Among  the  numerous 
treatises,  large  and  small,  —  by  Coleridge,  Hazlitt,  Mrs. 
Jameson,  Guizot,  Tieck,  Schlegel,  Ulrici,  &c.,  —  each 
containing  much  that  is  valuable,  we  would  single  out 
Guizot 's  as  embodying,  in  the  most  compact  and  conve- 
nient form,  the  results  of  the  highest  criticism  on  Shak- 
speare  himself,  on  his  time,  and  on  his  work. 


366  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Our  literature  possesses  but  few  dramas  of  the  classi- 
cal school,  and  those  not  of  the  highest  order.  The 
most  celebrated  specimen,  perhaps,  is  Addison's  "  Cato." 
But  weak  and  prosaic  lines  abound  in  it,  such  as, — 

"  Cato,  I've  orders  to  expostulate;" 
or,— 

"  Why  will  you  rive  my  heart  with  such  expressions  ?  " 

and  the  scenes  between  the  lovers  are  stiff  and  frigid, 
Yet  the  play  is  not  without  fine  passages  ;  as  when  the 
noble  Roman,  who  has  borne  unmoved  the  tidings  of  the 
death  of  his  son,  weeps  over  the  anticipated  ruin  of  his 
country :  — 

"  'Tis  Rome  requires  our  tears; 
The  mistress  of  the  world,  the  seat  of  empire, 
The  nurse  of  heroes,  the  delight  of  gods, 
That  humbled  the  proud  tyrants  of  the  earth, 
And  set  the  nations  free,  —  Rome  is  no  more !  " 

On  the  whole,  Cato's  character  is  finely  drawn,  and 
well  adapted  to  call  forth  the  powers  of  a  first-rate 
actor.  His  soliloquy  at  the  end,  beginning,  — 

"It  must  be  so:  Plato,  thou  reasonest  well,"  &c. 

has  been  justly  praised. 

Milton's  "  Samson  Agonistes "  is  constructed  upon 
the  model  of  a  Greek  tragedy.  The  choral  parts  are 
written  in  an  irregular  metre,  which,  however,  is  ful] 
of  harmony.  Though  not  suited  for  representation 
before  an  average  audience,  and  though  the  labored, 
compressed  diction,  while  it  everywhere  recalls  the 
great  mind  of  Milton,  deviates  from  any  objective 
standard  of  beautiful  expression,  this  piay  is  one  of 
those  which  continually  rise  upon  our  judgment.  In  it 
the  genius  of  Handel  has  inseparably  linked  itself,  in 
our  conceptions,  with  the  verse  of  Milton. 


HEROIC   POETRY.  367 

Heroic   and   Mock-Heroic   Poetry:   "The   Bruce,"   "The   Cam- 
paign," "  Rape  of  the  Lock." 

As  the  unity  of  the  epic  poem  is  derived  from  its 
being  the  evolution  of  one  great  complex  action,  so  the 
unity  of  the  heroic  poem  proceeds  from  its  being  the 
record  of  all  or  some  of  the  great  actions  of  an  indi- 
vidual hero.  Like  the  epic,  it  requires  a  serious  and 
dignified  form  of  expression;  and  consequently,  in 
English,  employs  nearly  always  either  the  heroic  coup- 
let, or  a  stanza  of  not  less  than  seven  lines.  Heroic 
poetry  has  produced  no  works  of  extraordinary  merit  in 
any  literature.  When  the  hero  is  living,  the  registra- 
tion of  his  exploits  is  apt  to  become  fulsome  ;  when 
dead,  tedious.  Boileau  has  perhaps  succeeded  best; 
the  heroic  poems  which  Addison  produced  in  honor  of 
Marlborough  and  William  III.,  in  hope  to  emulate  the 
author  of  the  "  Epitre  au  Roi,"  are  mere  rant  and  fus- 
tian in  comparison.  Our  earliest  heroic  poem,  "  The 
Bruce  of  Barbour," l  is,  perhaps,  the  best ;  but  the  short 
romance  metre  in  which  it  is  written  much  injures  its 
effect.  A  better  specimen  of  Barbour's  style  cannot  be 
selected  than  the  often-quoted  passage  on  freedom :  — 

"  A !  fredome  is  a  noble  thing! 
Fredome  mayss  man  to  have  liking: 
Fredome  all  solace  to  man  givis ; 
He  livys  at  ease,  that  freely  livys ! 
A  noble  hart  may  have  none  ease, 
Na  ellys  nocht  that  may  him  please, 
Gif  fredome  failyhe ;  for  fre  liking 
Is  yhaniyt2  ower  all  other  thing. 
Na  he,  that  aye  has  livyt  fre, 
May  nocht  knaw  weill  the  propyrte, 
The  angyr,  na  the  wrechyt  dome,8 
That  is  couplyt  to  foul  thyrldome.* 
Bot  gif  he  had  assayit  it, 
Then  all  perquer  6  he  suld  it  wyt ; 

1  See  p.  40.  2  Yearned  for.  8  Wretched  doom.  *  Thraldom.  °  Perfectly. 


368  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

And  suld  think  fredome  mar  to  pryss, 
Than  all  the  gold  in  warld  that  is. 
Thus  contrar  thingis  ever  mar, 
Discoweryngis  of  the  tothir  are l 
And  he  that  thryll 2  is,  has  nocht  his : 
All  that  he  has  embandownyt  is 
Till 3  his  lord,  quhat  evir  he  be, 
Yet  has  he  nocht  sa  mekill  fre 
As  fre  wyl  to  live,  or  do 
That  at  hys  hart  hym  drawis  to." 

Addison's  heroic  poem,  "  The  Campaign,"  contains 
the  well-known  simile  of  the  angel,  which  called  forth 
the  admiration  and  munificence  of  Godolphin.  The 
story  runs  as  follows:  In  1704,  shortly  after  the 
battle  of  Blenheim,  Godolphin,  then  lord  treasurer, 
happening  to  meet  Lord  Halifax,  complained  that  the 
great  victory  had  not  been  properly  celebrated  in  verse, 
and  inquired  if  he  knew  of  any  poet  to  whom  this  im- 
portant task  could  be  safely  intrusted.  Halifax  replied 
that  he  did  indeed  know  of  a  gentleman  thoroughly 
competent  to  discharge  this  duty,  but  that  the  indivi- 
dual he  referred  to  had  received  of  late  such  scanty 
recognition  of  his  talents  and  patriotism,  that  he 
doubted  if  he  would  be  willing  to  undertake  it.  Lord 
Godolphin  replied  that  Lord  Halifax  might  rest  as- 
sured, that  whoever  might  be  named  should  not  go 
unrewarded  for  his  trouble.  Upon  which,  Halifax 
named  Addison.  Godolphin  sent  a  common  friend  to 
Addison,  who  immediately  undertook  to  confer  immor- 
tality on  the  Duke  of  Marlborough.  The  poem  called 
"  The  Campaign  "  was  the  result.  Godolphin  saw  the 
manuscript  when  the  poet  had  got  as  far  as  the  once 
celebrated  simile  of  the  angel,  which  runs  thus :  — 

"So  when  an  angel,  by  divine  command, 
With  rising  tempests  shakes  a  guilty  land, 

l  Meaning,  "  explain  their  opposites."        2  Thrall.        8  To. 


HEROIC   POETRY. 

Such  as  of  late  o'er  pale  Britannia  past, 
Calm  and  serene  he  drives  the  furious  blast, 
And,  pleased  the  Almighty's  orders  to  perform, 
Rides  in  the  whirlwind,  and  directs  the  storm." 

Lord  Godolphin,  it  is  said,1  was  so  delighted  with 
this  not  very  reverent  simile,  that  he  immediately 
made  Addison  a  commissioner  of  appeals.  But  this 
favorable  judgment  of  the  poem  has  been  reversed  by 
later  criticism.  "The  Campaign,"  taken  as  a  whole, 
is  turgid  yet  feeble,  pretentious  yet  dull ;  it  has  few  of 
the  excellences,  and  nearly  all  the  faults,  which  heroic 
verse  can  have. 

With  the  heroic  we  may  class  its  travesty,  the  mock- 
heroic.  And  here  the  inimitable  poem  of  "  The  Rape 
of  the  Lock  "  will  occur  to  every  one  ;  in  which  Pope, 
with  admirable  skill,  and  perfect  mastery  over  all  the 
resources  of  literary  art,  has  created  an  artistic  whole, 
faultless  no  less  in  proportion  and  keeping  than  in  the 
finish  of  the  parts,  which,  in  its  kind,  remains  unap- 
proached  by  any  thing  in  English,  and  probably  in 
European,  literature.  The  slight  incident  on  which 
the  poem  was  founded  is  well  known.  Among  the 
triflers  who  fluttered  round  the  sovereign  at  Hampton 
Court, 

"  Where  thou,  great  Anna,  whom  three  realms  obey, 
Dost  sometimes  counsel  take,  and  sometimes  tea," 

were  Belinda  (Miss  Arabella  Fermor),  and  the  Baron 
(Lord  Petre).  Small-talk,  badinage,  flirtation,  scan- 
dal,— 

"  At  every  word  a  reputation  dies,"  — 

are  insufficient  to  fill  the  vacant  hours ;  and  for  these 
"  idle  hands  "  some  mischief  is  soon  found  to  do.  The 
Baron,  borrowing  a  pair  of  scissors  from  one  of  the 

1  See  the  Biographia  Britannica. 


370  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

maids  of  honor,  Clarissa,  audaciously  cuts  off  one  of 
the  two  curling  locks  of  Belinda's  back  hair :  — 

"  Just  then  Clarissa  drew,  with  tempting  grace, 
A  two-edged  weapon  from  her  shining  case: 
So  ladies  in  romance  assist  their  knight, 
Present  the  spear,  and  arm  him  for  the  fight. 
He  takes  the  gift  with  reverence,  and  extends 
The  little  engine  on  his  fingers'  ends ; 
This  just  behind  Belinda's  neck  he  spread, 
As  o'er  the  fragrant  steams  she  bent  her  head. 
Swift  to  the  lock  a  thousand  sprites  repair ; 
A  thousand  wings,  by  turns,  blow  back  the  hair ! 
And  thrice  they  twitched  the  diamond  in  her  ear; 
Thrice  she  looked  back,  and  thrice  the  foe  drew  near. 
Just  in  that  instant,  anxious  Ariel  sought 
The  close  recesses  of  the  virgin's  thought, 
As,  on  the  nosegay  in  her  breast  reclined, 
He  WiUched  the  ideas  rising  in  her  mind ; 
Sudden  he  viewed,  in  spite  of  all  her  art, 
An  earthly  lover  lurking  at  her  heart. 
Amazed,  confused,  he  found  his  power  expired, 
Resigned  to  fate,  and  with  a  sigh  retired. 
The  peer  now  spreads  the  glittering  forfex  wide, 
To  enclose  the  lock ;  now  joins  it  to  divide. 
Even  then,  before  the  fatal  engine  closed, 
A  wretched  sylph  too  fondly  interposed ; 
Fate  urged  the  shears,  and  cut  the  sylph  in  twain : 
(But  airy  substance  soon  unites  again). 
The  meeting  points  the  sacred  hair  dissever 
From  the  fair  head  forever  and  forever." 

The  liberty  was  resented  by  the  lady ;  and  a  breach 
between  the  two  families  was  the  result,  in  the  hope 
of  healing  which  Pope  wrote  this  poem.  So  far  the 
real  nearly  coincided  with  the  fictitious  facts.  But 
Pope,  unwilling  to  leave  the  matter  in  an  unsettled  and 
indeterminate  state,  —  an  error  which  Dryden  did  not 
avoid  in  the  "  Absalom  and  Achitophel,"  —  contrived, 
with  the  happiest  art,  to  crown  the  incident  with  a 
poetically  just  and  satisfying  conclusion.  The  insulted 
and  enraged  Belinda  commands  her  beau,  Sir  Plume,  — 


HEROIC   POETKY.  371 

"  Sir  Plume,  of  amber  snuff-box  justly  vain, 
And  the  nice  conduct  of  a  clouded  cane,"  — 

to  extort  the  lock  from  the  Baron.  He  makes  the 
attempt,  but  in  vain.  The  two  parties  now  muster  their 
forces,  and  engage  in  deadly  strife  ;  these  to  keep,  those 
to  win  back,  the  lock.  Belinda,  through  the  dexterous 
application  of  a  pinch  of  snuff,  has  the  Baron  at  her 
mercy ;  and  the  lock  is  to  be  restored.  But,  lo  !  it  has 
vanished,  and  is  hunted  for  everywhere  in  vain.  Many 
theories  are  framed  to  account  for  its  disappearance  ; 
but  the  poet  was  privileged  to  see  it  wafted  upwards  to 
the  skies,  where,  transformed  into  a  comet  sweeping  by 
with  "  a  radiant  trail  of  hair,"  the  lover  takes  it  for 
Venus,  and  the  astrologer  for  some  baleful  luminary, 
foreshowing  — 

"  The  fate  of  Louis,  and  the  fall  of  Rome." 

Lightness,  grace,  airy  wit,  playful  rallying,  every  thing, 
in  short,  that  is  most  alien  to  the  ordinary  characteris- 
tics of  the  English  intellect,  are  found  in  this  poem. 
It  is  a  keen,  sunny  satire,  without  a  spark  of  ilL-nature, 
on  the  luxury  and  vanity  of  a  society  impregnated 
with  ideas  borrowed  from  the  court  of  the  Grand 
Monarque,  from  classical  revivals,  and  Renaissance 
modes  of  thought.  It  may  be  noted  that  the  continual 
association  of  contrasted  ideas  is  one  of  the  chief 
sources  of  the  wit  with  which  the  poem  flashes  and 
runs  over,  as  with  lambent  flames  of  summer  lightning. 
Belinda's  guardian  sylph  cannot  discover  the  nature  of 
the  danger  which  threatens  her,  — 

"  Whether  the  nymph  shall  break  Diana's  law, 
Or  some  frail  china  jar  receive  a  flaw ; 
Or  stain  her  honor,  or  her  new  brocade ; 
Forget  her  prayers,  or  miss  a  masquerade." 


372  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

So,  again,  — 

"  The  merchant  from  the  Exchange  returns  in  peace, 
And  the  long  labors  of  the  toilet  cease." 

And,  — 

"Not  louder  shrieks  to  pitying  heaven  are  cast 
When  husbands,  or  when  lapdogs,  breathe  their  last." 

The  trivial  is  raised  to  the  rank  of  the  important,  and, 
as  it  were,  confounded  with  it,  that  both  may  appear 
as  so  much  plastic  material  in  the  hand  of  the  master. 
This  is  the  very  triumph  of  art. 

Narrative    Poetry :     Romances,     Tales,     Allegories,     Romantic 
Poems,    Historical  Poems. 

Narrative  poetry  is  less  determinate  in  form  than  any 
of  the  preceding  kinds.  The  narrative  poem  so  far 
resembles  the  epic,  that  it  also  is  concerned  with  a 
particular  sequence  of  human  actions,  and  permits  of 
the  intermixture  of  dialogue  and  description.  It  differs 
from  it  in  that  it  does  not  require  either  the  strict 
unity  or  the  intrinsic  greatness  of  the  epic  action.  In 
the  epic,  the  issue  of  the  action  is  involved  in  the 
fundamental  circumstances,  and  is  indicated  at  the  very 
outset.  The  first  two  lines  of  the  " Iliad"  contain 
the  germ  or  theme  which  is  expanded  and  illustrated 
through  the  twenty-two  books  which  follow.  The 
course  of  a  narrative  poem  is  in  general  more  like  that 
of  real  life  :  events  occur  and  are  described  which  have 
no  obvious  internal  relation  either  to  each  other  or  to 
some  one  ground  plan  ;  and  a  conclusion  in  which  the 
mind  reposes,  and  desires  nothing  beyond,  —  an  essen- 
tial requirement  in  the  epic,  —  is  not  to  be  strictly 
exacted  from  the  narrative  poem.  But,  even  if  the 
epic  unity  of  design  were  observed,  the  narrative  poem 


NARRATIVE  POETRY.  373 

would  still  be  distinguishable  from  the  higher  kind, 
either  by  the  inferior  greatness  of  the  subject,  or  by 
the  lower  quality  of  the  style.  An  epic  poem,  as  was 
said  before,  treats  of  one  great  complex  action,  in  a 
lofty  style,  and  with  fulness  of  detail.  In  a  narrative 
poem,  it  will  be  invariably  found  that  one  of  these  ele- 
ments is  wanting. 

It  will  be  convenient  to  divide  narrative  poems  into 
five  classes,  —  1,  romances ;  2,  tales  ;  3,  allegories ;  4, 
romantic  poems ;  5,  historical  poems. 

1.  The  romances,  or  gests,  in  old  English,  with  which 
our  manuscript  repositories  abound,  were  mostly  trans- 
lated or  imitated  from  French  originals  during  the 
thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  centuries.  In  the 
former  portion  of  this  work  a  general  description  was 
given  of  these  remarkable  poems,  so  that  it  is  unneces- 
sary here  to  enter  upon  any  questions  connected  with 
their  origin  or  subject-matter.  We  shall  now  present 
the  reader  with  an  analysis  of  a  curious  romance,  not 
belonging  to  one  of  the  great  cycles,  which  may  serve 
as  a  sample  of  the  whole  class.  It  is  the  romance  of 
Sir  Isumbras,  and  is  one  of  these  abridged  by  Ellis  :  — 

Sir  Isumbras  was  rich,  virtuous,  and  happy ;  but  in 
the  pride  of  his  heart  he  was  lifted  up,  and  gradually 
became  forgetful  of  God.  An  angel  appears  to  him, 
and  denounces  punishment.  It  is  like  the  story  of 
Job :  his  horses  and  oxen  are  struck  dead,  his  castle 
burnt  down,  and  many. of  his  servants  killed.  Then, 
with  his  wife  and  three  sons,  he  sets  out  on  a  pilgrimage 
to  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  On  the  way,  the  two  elder 
children  are  carried  off,  one  by  a  lion,  the  other  by  a 
leopard.  At  last  they  come  to  the  "  Greekish  Sea ;  "  a 
Saracen  fleet  sails  up  ;  the  Soudan  is  enamoured  of  the 
wife,  and  deprives  Sir  Isumbras  of  her  by  a  forced  sale, 
the  purchase-money  being  counted  down  upon  the 

32 


374  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

knight's  red  mantle.  The  lady  is  immediately  sent 
back  to  the  Soudan's  dominions  in  the  capacity  of 
queen.  Shortly  after  this  the  misery  of  Sir  Isumbras 
is  completed  by  the  abduction  of  his  only  remaining 
son  by  a  unicorn,  during  a  brief  interval  in  which  he 
was  vainly  pursuing  an  eagle  which  had  seized  upon 
the  mantle  and  the  gold.  In  fervent  contrition  he  falls 
on  his  knees,  and  prays  to  Jesus  and  the  Virgin.  He 
obtains  work  at  a  smith's  forge,  and  remains  in  this 
employment  seven  years,  during  which  he  forges  for 
himself  a  suit  of  armor.  A  battle  between  a  Christian 
and  a  Saracen  army  takes  place  not  far  off;  Sir  Isum- 
bras takes  part  in  it,  and  wins  the  battle  by  his  valor, 
killing  his  old  acquaintance  the  Soudan.  After  his 
wounds  are  healed,  he  takes  a  scrip  and  pike,  and  goes 
on  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land.  Here  he  stays  seven 
years  in  constant  labor,  mortification,  and  penance ;  at 
last,  — 

"  Beside  the  burgh  of  Jerusalem 
He  set  him  by  a  well-stream, 

Sore  wepand  for  his  sin ; 
And  as  he  sat,  about  midnight, 
There  came  an  angel  fair  and  bright, 

And  brought  him  bread  and  wine : 
He  said,  Palmer,  wel  thou  be : 
The  King  of  Heaven  greeteth  wel  thee ; 

Forgiven  is  sin  thine ! " 

He  wanders  away,  and  at  length  arrives  at  a  fair  castle 
belonging  to  a  rich  queen ;  he  begs  for  and  receives 
food  and  lodging.  The  queen,  after  a  conversation 
with  him,  resolves  to  entertain  the  pious  palmer  in  the 
castle.  After  a  sojourn  here  of  many  months,  Sir 
Isumbras  finds  one  day  in  an  eagle's  nest  his  own  red 
mantle  with  the  Soudan's  gold  in  it.  He  bears  it  to  his 
chamber,  and  the  recollections  it  awakens  completely 
overpower  him.  He  becomes  so  altered  that  the  queenT 


NARRATIVE   POETRY.  375 

in  order  to  ascertain  the  cause,  has  his  room  broken 
open ;  when  the  sight  of  the  gold  explains  all,  and 
mutual  recognition  ensues.  Sir  Isumbras  tells  his 
Saracen  subjects  that  they  must  be  forthwith  converted. 
They,  however,  object  to  such  summary  measures,  and 
rise  in  rebellion  against  him  and  his  queen,  who  stand 
absolutely  alone  in  the  struggle.  In  the  thick  of  the 
very  unequal  contest  which  ensues,  three  knights, 
mounted  respectively  on  a  lion,  a  leopard,  and  a  unicorn, 
come  in  opportunely  to  the  rescue ;  and  by  their  aid  Sir 
Isumbras  gains  a  complete  victory.  These,  of  course, 
are  his  three  lost  sons.  For  each  he  obtains  a  kingdom  ; 
and,  all  uniting  their  efforts,  they  live  to  see  the  inhabit- 
ants of  all  their  kingdoms  converted. 

"  They  lived  and  died  in  good  intent: 
Unto  heaven  their  souls  went, 

When  that  they  dead  were ; 
Jesu  Christ,  Heaven's  King, 
Give  us  aye  his  blessing, 

And  shield  us  from  harm ! " 

Such,  or  similar  to  this,  is  the  usual  form  of  conclu- 
sion of  all  the  old  romances,  even  those,  as  "  The  Seven 
Sages,  for  instance,"  of  which  the  moral  tone  is  extremely 
questionable. 

A  portion  of  the  great  romance  of  "  Arthur "  has 
been  given  to  us  in  a  modern  dress  by  Tennyson.  Few 
readers  of  poetry  are  unacquainted  with  his  beautiful 
poem  of  "  Morte  d' Arthur,"  a  modern  rendering  of  the 
concluding  part  of  the  romance  bearing  that  title. 
"  The  Idyls  of  the  King "  are  renderings  of  so  many 
particular  passages  or  episodes  in  the  same  great 
romance. 

The  immediate  source  from  which  the  laureate  drew  his  materials 
was  Sir  Thomas  Malory's  compilation  of  "  The  Historic  of  King 
Arthur,"  made  by  him  "  out  of  certeyii  bookes  of  Frensche  "  about 


376  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

the  year  1470,  and  printed  by  Caxton  in  1485.  This  work  was  In 
prose,  like  the  French  originals  from  which  it  was  taken,  and  was 
compiled  from  the  romances  of  "Merlin,"  "Lancelot,"  "Tristan," 
the  "  Queste  du  St.  Grail,"  and  the  "  Mort  Artus."  1 

2.  Tales  form  the  second  class  of  narrative  poems. 
The  tale  is  a  poem  in  which,  as  a  general  rule,  the 
agencies  are  natural ;  in  which  the  chief  interest  lies 
in  the  story  itself,  and  the  manner  in  which  it  is 
unfolded,  not  in  the  style,  or  language,  or  peculiar 
humor  of  the  author ;  lastly,  in  which  neither  is  the 
action  on  a  large  scale,  nor  are  the  chief  actors  great 
personages.  The  earliest,  and  still  by  far  the  best  col- 
lection of  such  tales  which  English  literature  possesses, 
is  the  "  Canterbury  Tales  "  of  Chaucer.  In  connection 
with  this  work,  we  shall  endeavor  to  draw  out  in  some 
detail  the  proofs  which  it  affords  of  the  solidity  and 
originality  of  Chaucer's  genius. 

In  ever}r  great  writer  there  is  a  purely  personal  ele- 
ment, and  there  is  also  a  social  element.  By  the  first, 
which  is  also  the  highest  in  kind,  he  is  what  he  is,  and 
soars  freely  in  the  empyrean  of  creative  imagination ; 
by  the  second,  he  is  connected  with  and  modified  by 
the  society  in  which  he  moves,  the  writers  whom  he 
follows  or  admires,  and  even  the  physical  characters  of 
the  spot  of  earth  where  he  resides.  It  is  chiefly  under 
these  latter  relations  that  we  propose  to  consider  the 
genius  of  Chaucer. 

The  English  society  in  which  he  moved  was  already 
far  beyond  those  comparatively  simple  relations  which 
we  ascribe  to  the  society  of  feudal  times.  In  the  eyes 
of  an  old  romance-writer,  mankind  fall  naturally  and 
conveniently  under  these  four  divisions :  sovereign 
princes,  knights,  churchmen,  and  the  commonalty.  For 

1  See  Mr.  T.  Wright's  edition  of  Sir  Thomas  Malory's  "  Historic  " 
(1858). 


NARRATIVE  POETRY.  377 

this  fourth,  or  proletarian  class,  he  entertains  a  supreme 
contempt :  he  regards  them  as  only  fit  to  hew  wood 
and  draw  water  for  princes  and  knights ;  and  nothing 
delights  him  more  than  to  paint  the  ignominious  rout 
and  promiscuous  slaughter  of  thousands  of  this  base- 
born  multitude  by  the  hand  of  a  single  favorite  knight. 
There  certainly  was  a  time  —  before  great  cities  rose  to 
wealth  and  obtained  franchises,  when  feudal  castles 
were  scattered  like  hail  over  the  North  of  Europe,  and 
private  war  was  universal  and  incessant,  —  at  which 
this  picture  of  society  had  much  truth  in  it.  And,  as 
usually  happens,  the  literature  which  had  sprung  up 
under,  and  which  was  adapted  only  to,  such  a  state  of 
things,  continued  to  be  produced  from  the  force  of 
habit,  after  the  face  of  society  had  become  greatly 
altered.  Shutting  their  eyes  to  the  progress  of  things 
around  them ;  overlooking,  or  else  bewailing  as  an 
innovation  and  a  degeneracy,  the  constant  accumulation 
and  growing  power  of  wealth  obtained  by  industry, 
and  the  consequent  rise  of  new  classes  of  men  into 
social  importance,  —  the  romance-writers,  as  a  body, 
continued  rather  to  adapt  their  translations  or  original 
effusions  to  the  atmosphere  of  the  baronial  hall,  and  to 
the  established  order  of  ideas  in  the  knightly  under- 
standing, than  to  seek  for  sympathy  among  classes 
which  they  dreaded  while  affecting  to  despise. 

But  it  is  characteristic  of  genius,  first,  to  have  a  pro- 
found insight  into  the  real ;  then  boldly  to  face  it ; 
lastly,  by  the  art  which  is  its  inseparable  companion,  to 
reproduce  it  under  appropriate  forms.  Thus  it  was 
with  Chaucer  in  the  England  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
He  had  no  literary  models  to  work  by — in  his  own  lan- 
guage at  least  —  except  the  antiquated  and  unreal  feu- 
j  dal  portraits  above  referred  to  ;  but  he  had  sympathies 
as  large  as  the  nature  of  man,  a  soul  that  could  not 

32* 


378  HISTORY  OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

endure  a  dead  form  or  a  mere  conventionality,  and  an 
intellect  which  arranged  the  human  beings  around  him 
according  to  their  qualities,  — by  what  they  were,  rather 
than  by  what  they  were  called.  He  felt,  as  Burns  did, 
that  — 

"  The  rank  is  but  the  guinea  stamp; 
The  man's  the  gowd  for  a'  that." 

And  accordingly,  in  that  wonderful  gallery  of  portraits, 
the  prologue  to  the  "  Canterbury  Tales,"  we  have  the 
existing  aspects  and  classes  of  English  society  described 
with  a  broad  and  impartial  hand.  The  knight  is  indeed 
there,  —  one  figure  among  many,  nor  does  Chaucer,  like 
Cervantes,  present  him  in  a  ridiculous  light,  for  knight- 
hood in  the  fourteenth  century  was  still  a  reality,  not  a 
piece  of  decayed  pageantry,  as  in  the  sixteenth  ;  but  he 
and  his  order  appear  as  what  they  actually  were,  —  that 
is,  as  one  element  in  society  amongst  many.  They  do 
not,  as  in  the  pages  of  romance,  cast  all  other  orders  of 
laymen  into  the  shade.  Churchmen,  again,  are,  on  the 
whole,  represented  without  partiality  and  without  bit- 
terness. There  may  be  a  tinge  of  Puritanism  in  the 
keenness  of  some  of  the  invectives  against  ecclesiastical 
personages ;  but  it  is  not  more  than  a  tinge.  On  the 
whole,  Chaucer  may  be  truly  said  to 

"  Nothing  extenuate, 
Nor  set  down  aught  in  malice;" 

and  if  we  have  an  affected  prioress,  a  roguish  friar,  and 
a  hypocritical  pardoner,  we  have,  on  the  other  side,  the 
clerk  of  Oxenford,  with  his  solid  worth  and  learning, 
and  the  well-known  character  of  the  good  parish  priest. 
But  besides  the  knight,  the  squire,  and  the  ecclesiastical 
persons,  a  crowd  of  other  characters  come  upon  the 
canvas,  and  take  part  in  the  action.  There  is  the 


NARRATIVE   POETRY.  379 

Frankelein,  the  representative  of  the  sturdy,  hospitable, 
somewhat  indolent  English  freeholder,  whom,  however, 
participation  in  the  political  and  judicial  system  intro- 
duced by  the  energetic  Norman  had  made  a  better  and 
more  sterling  person  than  were  his  Saxon  ancestors. 
Then  we  have  the  mixed  population  of  cities,  represented 
by  the  merchant,  the  man  of  law,  the  shipman,  the  Doc- 
tour  of  Physike,  and  the  good  Wife  of  Bath,  —  all  from 
the  middle  classes  ;  and  by  the  haberdasher,  the  carpen- 
ter, the  webbe  (weaver),  &c.,  from  the  lower.  The 
inferior  ranks  of  the  rural  population  are  represented  by 
the  ploughman,  the  miller,  and  the  reve. 

Viewed  in  this  light,  as  a  picture  of  contemporary 
society,  the  prologue  is  certainly  the  most  valuable  part 
of  the  "  Canterbury  Tales."  And  what  does  this  pic- 
ture show  us  ?  Not  that  distorted  image  which  the  feu- 
dal pride  of  the  great  lords,  humored  by  the  sycophancy 
of  the  minstrels,  had  conjured  up  in  the  romances,  but 
the  real  living  face  of  English  society,  such  as  Chris- 
tianity and  the  mediaeval  Church,  working  now  for  seven 
centuries  upon  the  various  materials  submitted  to  their 
influence,  had  gradually  fashioned  it  to  be.  Doubtless 
it  shows  many  evils,  —  the  profanation  of  sacred  call- 
ings, the  abuse  of  things  originally  excellent,  ill-repressed 
tendencies  to  sloth,  luxury,  and  licentiousness  ;  but  it 
shows  also  a  state  of  things  in  which  every  member  of 
society,  even  the  humblest,  had  recognized  rights,  and 
was  not  sunk  beneath  the  dignity  of  man.  We  have  the 
high  and  the  low,  the  rich  and  the  poor ;  but  the  high 
are  not  inordinately  high,  and  the  low  are  not  debased. 
The  cement  of  religion  binds  together  the  whole  social 
fabric,  causing  the  common  sympathies  of  its  members 
to  predominate  above  the  grounds  of  estrangement. 

It  might  have  been  expected  that  not  only  the  pro- 
logue, but  many  of  the  tales  which  are  put  in  the 


380  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

mouths  of  the  characters  there  described,  would  be 
strongly  illustrative  of  English  life ;  but  this  is  not  the 
case.  Chaucer,  like  Shakspeare,  borrowed  most  of  his 
stories  from  the  various  collections  which  he  found 
ready  to  his  hand ;  and  these  were  not  of  English 
growth,  nor  was  their  scene  laid  in  England.  When  he 
attempts,  in  imitation  of  Boccaccio,  to  invent  humorous 
tales  of  his  own  (e.g.,  the  "  Miller's  Tale,"  the  "  Friar's 
Tale,"  &c.),  he  falls  short  of  his  prototype ;  for  though 
he  is  not  more  coarse  than  Boccaccio,  and  though  his 
humor  is  matchless,  we  miss  that  keen  wit  and  exquisite 
beauty  of  style,  which,  with  all  that  there  is  to  con- 
demn, we  cannot  help  admiring  in  the  Italian  writer. 
One  or  two  of  Chaucer's  original  tales  are  both  coarse 
and  dull.  In  the  "  Sompnour's  Tale,"  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, the  denotiment  of  the  story  is  exceedingly  humor- 
ous ;  but  the  joke  is  too  broad  for  modern  taste.  The 
"  Nonnes  Prestes  Tale"  is  also  very  diverting. 

Among  the  writers  to  whom  Chaucer  was  indebted, 
whether  for  ideas  or  materials,  there  were  none  to  whom 
his  obligations  were  so  considerable  as  to  the  great 
Italians  of  the  fourteenth  century.  The  "Knight's 
Tale  "  is  taken  from  Boccaccio ;  the  "  Clerke's  Tale," 
from  Petrarch ;  and  the  story  of  Pugilin  or  Ugolino,  in 
the  "  Monk's  Tale,"  is  borrowed  from  the  well-known 
passage  in  Dante.  But  of  Chaucer  it  can  be  truly  said. 
"  Nihil  quod  tetigit,  non  ornavit."  The  exquisite  grace 
and  tenderness  with  which  the  story  of  "  Patient  Griz- 
zel "  is  related  are  all  his  own  ;  and  the  fresh,  breezy 
air  of  the  greenwood,  which  we  seem  to  inhale  in  read- 
ing parts  of  the  "  Knight's  Tale,"  betokens  a  Teutonic, 
not  an  Italian  imagination. 

Lastly,  let  us  endeavor  to  trace  the  influence  of  ex- 
ternal nature  upon  Chaucer's  poetical  development.  It 
must  be  borne  in  mind, — indeed,  Chaucer's  phraseology 


NAEKATIVE  POETRY.  381 

constantly  brings  the  fact  before  us,  — that  to  the  En- 
glish poet  of  the  fourteenth  century  Nature  was  far 
from  being  the  pruned,  tamed,  and  civilized  phenome- 
non that  she  was  and  is  to  the  poets  of  this  and  the 
eighteenth  century.  Chaucer  speaks  naturally,  not 
figuratively,  of  the  greenwood,  by  which  he  means  what 
is  now  called  in  the  Australian  colonies  "  the  bush,"  — 
that  is,  the  wild  woodland  country,  from  which  the 
original  forests  have  never  yet  been  removed  by  the 
hand  of  man.  Even  in  Shakspeare's  time,  large  por- 
tions of  England  still  fell  under  this  category  ;  so  that 
he,  too,  could  naturally  sing  of  the  "  greenwood  tree,'' 
and  found  no  difficulty  in  describing,  in  "  As  You  Like 
It,"  what  an  Australian  would  call  bush  life, — that  is, 
life  on  a  free  earth  and  under  a  free  heaven ;  not  trav- 
elling by  turnpike  roads,  nor  haunted  by  the  dread  of 
trespass  and  its  penalties,  but  permitting  men  to  rove 
at  large,  and,  in  Shakspeare's  phrase,  "  to  fleet  the  time 
carelessly  as  in  the  golden  world."  This  condition  of 
external  nature  gives  a  largeness  and  freshness  to  the 
poetry  which  arises  under  it ;  the  scent  of  the  woods 
and  the  song  of  the  birds  seem  to  hang  about  the  verse, 
and  "  sanctify  the  numbers." 

But,  again,  observe  the  eminent  healthiness,  the  well- 
balanced  stability,  of  Chaucer's  mind.  He  is  no  sickly 
naturalist ;  he  does  not  turn  with  disgust  from  town 
life  to  "  babble  o'  green  fields ; "  he  neither  feels  nor 
affects  such  a  scorn  or  disapprobation  of  man  and  so- 
ciety as  to  be  driven  to  take  refuge  in  the  untarnished 
loveliness  of  nature,  in  order  to  find  fit  materials  for 
poetical  creations.  Human  society,  no  less  than  ex- 
ternal nature,  is  in  the  eyes  of  Chaucer  beautiful  and 
venerable  :  it,  too,  comes  from  the  hand  of  God ;  it,  too, 
supplies  fit  themes  for  poetry. 

With   Shakspeare  and   Spenser,  but  pre-eminently 


382  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

with  the  former,  the  case  is  much  the  same.  In  Shak* 
speare  there  is  none  of  that  morbid  revulsion  against  the 
crimes  or  littlenesses  of  society  which  drove  Byron  and 
Shelley  into  alienation  and  open  revolt  against  it ;  nor, 
again,  is  there  that  estrangement  from  active  life  and 
popular  movement  which  makes  Wordsworth  the  poet 
of  the  fields  and  mountains,  not  of  man.  In  the  pages 
of  the  great  dramatist,  who  truly  "  holds  the  mirror  up 
to  nature,"  not  external  only  but  human,  we  behold 
society  in  all  its  varied  aspects,  by  turns  repellant  and 
attractive,  yet  in  the  main  as  establishing  noble  and 
dignified  relations  between  man  and  man. 

The  following  extracts  are  taken, —  one  from  the 
"  Clerke's,"  the  other  from  the  "  Nonnes  Prestes  Tale." 
The  much-enduring  Grisildes  is  thus  described :  — 

1. 

"Among  this  pore  folk  there  dwelt  a  man 
Which  that  was  holden  porest  of  hem  alle; 

But  hoighe  God  som  tyme  sende  can 
His  grace  unto  a  litel  oxe  stalle. 
Janictila  men  of  that  thorp  him  calle. 

A  dough ter  had  he,  fair  y-nough  to  sight, 

And  Grisildes  this  yonge  mayden  hight. 

But  though  this  mayden  tender  were  of  age, 

Yet  in  the  breste  of  her  virginite 
Ther  was  enclosed  ripe  and  sad  corrage ; 

And  in  gret  reverence  and  charite 

Hir  olde  pore  fader  fostered  sche : 
A  few  scheep,  spynnyng,  on  the  fold  sche  kept, 
Sche  nolde  not  ben  ydel  til  sche  slept. 

And  whanne  sche  com  horn  sche  wolde  brynge 

Words  and  other  herbis  tymes  ofte, 
The  which  sche  shred  and  seth l  for  her  lyvyng, 

And  made  hir  bed  ful  hard,  and  nothing  softe. 

And  ay  sche  kept  hir  fadres  lif  on  lofte,2 

1  Boiled. 

2  Kept  on  lofte,  i.e.,  sustained,  up-fi/2-ed;  from  the  Anglo-Saxon 
lyft,  air. 


NARRATIVE   POETRY.  383 

With  every  obeissance  and  diligence, 
That  child  may  do  to  fadres  reverence." 

The  confusion  in  the  poor  widow's  household,  after 
the  fox  has  carried  off  her  cock  Chaunticleere,  is  thus 
humorously  described :  — - 


"  The  sely  wydow,  and  hir  doughtres  two, 
Herden  these  hennys  crie  and  maken  wo, 
And  out  at  dores  starte  thay  anon, 
And  saw  the  fox  toward  the  wood  is  gone, 
And  bar  upon  his  bak  the  cok  away; 
They  criden  *  Out  I  harrow  and  wayleway ! 
Ha,  ha,  the  fox ! '  and  after  him  thay  ran, 
And  eek  with  staves  many  another  man  ; 
Ran  Colle  our  dogge,  and  Talbot,  and  Garlond, 
And  Malkin  with  a  distaff  in  hir  bond; 
Ran  cow  and  calf,  and  eek  the  veray  hogges, 
So  were  they  fered  for  berkyng  of  the  dogges, 
And  schowting  of  the  men  and  wymmen  eke, 
Thay  ronne  that  thay  thought  hir  herte  breke, 
Thay  yelleden  as  feendes  doon  in  helle; 
The  dokes  criden  as  men  wold  hem  quelle;1 
The  gees  for  fere  flowen  over  the  trees ; 
Out  of  the  hyve  came  the  swarm  of  bees ; 
So  hidous  was  the  noyse,  a  benedicite  ! 
Certes  he  Jakke  Straw,  and  his  meynie,2 
Ne  maden  schoutes  never  half  so  schrille, 
Whan  that  thay  wolden  eny  Flemyng  kille, 
As  thilke  day  was  maad  upon  the  fox." 

To  whatever  period  of  our  literature  we  may  turn,  a 
multitude  of  tales  present  themselves  for  review. 
Gower's  "  Confessio  Amantis  "  is  in  great  part  com- 
posed of  them,  the  materials  being  taken  from  the 
"  Gesta  Romanorum,"  or  from  collections  of  French 
fabliaux.  Dryden's  so-called  "  Fables "  are  merely 
translations  or  modernizations  of  tales  by  Ovid,  Chau- 
cer, and  Boccaccio.  "  The  Knight's  Tale,"  or  "  Pala- 

1  Kill.  2  Band  or  retinue. 


384  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

mon  and  Arcite,"  and  the  "  Nun's  Priest's  Tale,"  are 
those  which  he  selected  from  Chaucer.  Falconer's 
"  Shipwreck,"  a  popular  poem  in  its  day,  is  hardly 
worth  quoting  from.  The  smooth  and  sounding  verse 
betrays  the  careful  student  of  Pope ;  but  there  is  no 
force  of  imagination,  no  depth  or  lucidity  of  intellect. 

Crabbe's  Tales  show  great  narrative  and  dramatic 
skill,  and  contain  some  pathetic  passages.  Perhaps  in 
all  of  them  the  moral  is  pointed  with  too  much  pains  ; 
the  amiable  writer  had  never  felt  that  the  true  worth 
of  poetry  transcends  any  set  didactic  purpose. 

"  Oh !  to  what  uses  shall  we  put 

The  wild  wood-flower  that  simply  blows  ? 
And  is  there  any  moral  shut 
Within  the  bosom  of  the  rose?"  1 

Parnell's  "Hermit,"  a  didactic  tale,  contains  the 
famous  blunder  —  real  or  apparent  —  which  Boswell 
solemnly  submitted  for  Johnson's  critical  opinion.  It 
occurs  in  the  following  lines  :  — 

"  To  clear  this  doubt,  to  know  the  world  by  sight, 
To  find  if  books  and  swains  reported  right ; 
For  yet  by  sioainx  alone  the  world  he  knew, 
Whose  feet  came  wandering  o'er  the  nightly  dew." 

3.  Allegories.  —  According  to  the  etymology  of  the 
word,  "  allegory  "  means  the  expressing  of  one  thing  by 
means  of  another.  And  this  may  serve  as  a  loose  gen- 
eral definition  of  all  allegorical  writing;  for  it  will 
embrace  not  only  the  personification  of  human  quali- 
ties, which  is  the  ordinary  subject  of  allegory,  but  also 
the  application  of  any  material  designation  to  a  subject 
to  which  it  is  properly  inapplicable ;  as  when  Langlande 
speaks  of  the  castle  of  Caro,  and  Bunyan  of  the  city 
of  Destruction,  and  the  town  of  Apostasy.  But,  in 

1  Tennyson's  Fairy  Princess. 


NARRATIVE   POETRY.  385 

addition  to  the  general  notion  of  medial  representation 
above  stated,  the  word  "allegory"  involves  also  by 
usage  the  idea  of  a  narrative.  It  embraces  two  kinds : 
1,  allegories  proper ;  and,  2,  fables.  The  proper  alle- 
gory has  usually  a  didactic,  but  sometimes  a  satirical 
purpose  ;  sometimes,  again,  it  blends  satire  with  instruc- 
tion. The  author  of  the  famous  allegorical  satire  of 
"  Reynard  the  Fox  "  thus  describes  at  the  conclusion 
(we  quote  from  Goethe's  version)  the  didactic  inten- 
tion of  his  satire  :  "  Let  every  one  quickly  turn  himself 
to  wisdom,  shun  vice,  and  honor  virtue.  This  is  the 
sense  of  the  poem ;  in  which  the  poet  has  mingled  fables 
and  truth,  that  you  may  be  able  to  discern  good  from 
evil,  and  to  value  wisdom,  that  also  the  buyers  of  this 
book  may  from  the  course  of  the  world  receive  daily 
instruction.  For  so  are  things  constituted;  so  will  they 
continue ;  and  thus  ends  our  poem  of  Reynard's  nature 
and  actions.  May  the  Lord  help  us  to  eternal  glory  ! 
Amen." 

In  Langlande's  allegorical  "  Vision  of  Piers  Plow- 
man," the  satirical  purpose  so  preponderates,  that  we 
have  thought  it  best  to  class  the  work  under  the  head 
of  Satire.  The  great  majority  of  the  allegorical  poems 
of  our  early  writers  have  didactic  aims  more  or  less 
definite.  Chaucer's  beautiful  allegory  of  the  "  Flower 
and  the  Leaf  "  has  the  following  symbolical  meaning, 
as  Speght  in  his  argument  expresses  it:  "  They  which 
honor  the  flower,  a  thing  fading  with  every  blast,  are 
such  as  look  after  beauty  and  worldly  pleasure  ;  but 
they  that  honor  the  leaf,  which  abideth  with  the  root, 
notwithstanding  the  frosts  and  winter  storms,  are  they 
which  follow  virtue  and  enduring  qualities,  without 
regard  of  worldly  respects."  The  following  extract  is 
from  the  concluding  portion  of  the  poem  :  — 


386  HISTOEY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

"  '  Now,  faire  Madame,'  quoth  I, 
'  If  I  durst  aske,  what  is  the  cause  and  why, 
That  knightes  have  the  ensigne  of  honour, 
Rather  by  the  leaf  e  than  the  floure  ? ' 

*  Soothly,  dough ter,'  quod  she,  "this  is  the  trouth:  — 

For  knightes  ever  should  be  persevering, 
To  seeke  honour  without  feintise  or  slouth, 

Fro  wele  to  better  in  all  manner  thinge ; 

In  signe  of  which,  with  leaves  aye  lastinge 
They  be  rewarded  after  their  degre, 
Whose  lusty  green  may  not  appaired  be, 

But  aye  kepi ng  their  beau te  fresh  and  greene; 

For  there  nis  stonne  that  may  hem  deface, 
Haile  nor  snow,  winde  nor  f rostes  kene ; 

Wherefore  they  have  this  property  and  grace. 

And  for  the  floure,  within  a  little  space 
Wol  they  be  lost,  so  simple  of  nature 
They  be,  that  they  no  grievance  may  endure.'  " 

The  allegorical  works  of  Lydgate  and  Hawes  have 
not  sufficient  merit  to  require  special  notice.  Some 
account  of  Dunbar's  and  Lyndsay's  allegories  was 
given  in  our  notice  of  those  poets : l  an  extract  from 
"The  Thistle  and  the  Rose  "  is  subjoined  :  — 

"  Than  callit  scho  all  flouris  that  grow  on  field, 

Discryving  all  their  f assiouns  and  effeirs ; 
Upon  the  awful  THRISSILL  scho  beheld, 

And  saw  him  keipit  with  a  busche  of  speiris ; 

Considering  him  so  able  for  the  weiris, 
A  radius  crown  of  rubeis  scho  him  gaif, 
And  said,  In  field  go  forth,  and  fend  the  laif.2 

And,  sen  thou  art  a  king,  thou  be  discreit ; 

Herb  without  vertew  thou  hold  nocht  of  sic  pryce, 
As  herb  of  vertew  and  of  odour  sweit ; 

And  lat  no  nettil  vyle  and  full  of  vyce 

Hir  fallow  3  to  the  goodly  flour-de-lyce : 
Nor  lat  no  wyld  weid  full  of  churlicheness, 
Compair  hir  till  the  lilleis  nobilness : 

1  See  pp.  55,  57.        2  Defend  the  rest.        8  Join  herself. 


NARRATIVE   POETRY.  387 

Nor  hald  no  udir  flour  in  sic  denty 
As  the  frescbe  Rois,  of  cullour  reid  and  quhyt; 

For  gif  thou  dois,  hurt  is  thyne  honesty, 
Considering  that  no  flour  is  so  perfyt, 
So  full  of  blissful  angellik  bewty, 

Imperiall  birth,  honour,  and  dignite." 

We  pass  on  to  the  great  allegorical  masterpiece  of 
the  Elizabethan  period,  —  Spenser's  "  Faerie  Queen." 
In  this  poem,  the  Gothic  or  romantic  spirit  is  even  yet 
more  decisively  in  the  ascendent  than  in  the  plays  of 
Shakspeare,  although  under  the  correction  of  the  finer 
feeling  for  art  which  the  Renaissance  had  awakened. 
Its  great  length  causes  it  to  be  little  read  at  the  present 
day  ;  and  yet  a  true  lover  of  poetry,  when  once  he  has 
taken  the  book  up,  will  find  it  difficult  to  lay  it  down. 
The  richness  of  the  imagery,  the  stately  beauty  of 
the  style,  above  all,  that  nameless  and  indescribable 
charm  which  a  work  of  true  genius  always  bears  about 
it,  make  one  forget  the  undeniable  prolixity  with  which 
the  design  of  the  poem  is  worked  out.  It  is  dedicated 
to  Queen  Elizabeth ;  and  in  a  letter  to  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh,  which  is  generally  prefixed  to  the  work,  the 
author  has  explained  his  plan  :  — 

"  The  general  end  of  all  the  booke  is  to  fashion  a  gentleman  or 
noble  person  in  vertuous  and  gentle  discipline;  which  for  that  I 
conceived  shoulde  be  most  plausible  and  pleasing,  being  coloured 
with  an  historical  fiction,  the  which  the  most  part  of  men  delight  to 
read,  rather  for  variety  of  matter  than  for  profite  of  the  ensample,  I 
chose  the  Historye  of  King  Arthure,  as  most  fit  for  the  excellency 
of  his  person,  being  made  famous  by  many  men's  former  workes, 
and  also  farthest  from  the  danger  of  envy,  and  suspicion  of  present 
time.  In  which  I  have  followed  all  the  antique  poets  historicall; 
.  .  .  by  ensample  of  [whom]  I  labour  to  pourtraict  in  Arthure, 
before  he  was  king,  the  image  of  a  brave  knight,  perfected  in  the 
twelve  private  Morall  Vertues,  as  Aristotle  hath  devised:  the  which 
is  the  purpose  of  these  first  twelve  bookes." 

After  saying  that  he  conceives  Arthur  to  have  "  seen 


388  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

in  a  dreame  or  vision  the  Faerie  Queen,  with  whose 
excellent  beautie  ravished,  he,  awaking,  resolved  to 
seeke  her  out,"  he  proceeds :  — 

"  '  In  that  Faerie  Queen  I  mean  Glory  in  my  general  intention,  but 
in  my  particular,  I  mean  the  most  excellent  and  glorious  person  of 
our  soveraine  the  Queene,  and  her  kingdom  in  Faerie  Laad.  And 
yet,  in  some  places  els,  I  do  otherwise  shadow  her;'  namely  as  the 
huntress  Belphoebe.  'So,  in  the  person  of  Prince  Arthtire  I  set 
forth  Magnificence  in  particular;  which  Vertue,  for  that  (according 
to  Aristotle  and  the  rest)  it  is  the  perfection  of  all  the  rest,  and 
containeth  in  it  them  all,  therefore  in  the  whole  course  I  mention  the 
deed  of  Arthure  applyable  to  that  Vertue,  which  I  write  of  in  that 
booke.  But  of  the  twelve  other  Vertues,  I  make  twelve  other  knights 
the  patrones  for  the  more  variety  of  the  history.'  " 

Some  idea  of  the  nature  of  the  poem,  and  of  the 
depth  and  richness  of  Spenser's  imagination,  may  be 
gained  from  the  following  brief  analysis  of  the  twelfth 
canto  of  the  second  book,  which  contains  the  "  Legend 
of  Sir  Guyon,  or  of  Temperance." 

Sir  Guyon,  under  the  guidance  of  a  palmer,  is  voy- 
aging towards  the  Bower  of  Blisse,  the  abode  of 
Acrasia  (Intemperance).  The  boat  has  to  pass  between 
the  Gulf  of  Greedinesse  and  a  magnetic  mountain. 
Escaped  from  these  dangers,  they  coast  by  the  Wan- 
dering Islands :  then  they  run  the  gauntlet  between  a 
quicksand  and  a  whirlpool.  A  "  hideous  host "  of  sea- 
monsters  vainly  endeavor  to  terrify  them.  Then  they 
sail  near  the  Bay  of  the  Mermaids,  who  sing  more 
enchantingly  than  the  Sirens  ;  but  Guyon  turns  a  deaf 
ear.  At  last  they  reach  the  desired  land,  and  proceed 
to  the  Bower  of  Blisse.  Rejecting  the  cup  of  wine 
tendered  by  the  Dame  Excesse,  Guyon  presses  forward 
through  the  garden  :  — 

"  Eft  soones  they  heard  a  most  melodious  sound, 

Of  all  that  might  delight  a  dainty  eare, 
Such  as  at  once  might  not  on  living  ground, 
Save  in  this  paradise  be  heard  elsewhere: 


NARRATIVE  POETRY.  38& 

Eight  hard  it  was  for  wight  that  did  it  heare, 
To  read  what  manner  musicke  that  mote  bee ; 

For  all  that  pleasing  is  to  living  eare 
Was  there  consorted  in  one  harmonic : 
Birds,  voices,  instruments,  winds,  waters,  all  agree. 

The  joyous  birdes,  shrouded  in  chearefull  shade, 

Their  notes  unto  the  voice  attempred  sweet; 
Th'  angelicall  soft  trembling  voices  made 

To  th'  instruments  divine  respondence  meet ; 

The  silver-sounding  instruments  did  meet 
With  the  base  murmure  of  the  waters'  fall; 

The  waters'  fall,  with  difference  discreet, 
Now  soft,  now  loud,  unto  the  wind  did  call ; 
The  gentle  warbling  wind  low  answered  to  all." 

Then  from  the  lips  of  an  unseen  singer  there  issues  an 
inthralling  Epicurean  strain  :  — 

"  The  whiles  some  one  did  chaunt this  lovely  lay: 
'  Ah !  see,  whoso  fayre  thing  dost  faine  to  see, 

In  springing  flowre  the  image  of  thy  day ! 
Ah !  see  the  virgin  rose,  how  sweetly  she 
Doth  first  peepe  forth  with  bashful  modestee, 

That  fairer  seemes  the  lesse  ye  see  her  may ! 
Lo!  see,  soon  after  how  more  bold  and  free 

Her  bared  bosome  she  doth  broad  display; 

Lo !  see  soon  after  how  she  fades  and  falls  away ! 

*  So  passeth,  in  the  passing  of  a  day 

Of  mortall  life,  the  leafe,  the  bud,  the  flowre; 
Ne  more  doth  flourish  after  first  decay, 

That  erst  was  sought  to  deck  both  bed  and  bowre 

Of  many  a  lady,  and  many  a  paramoure ! 
Gather  therefore  the  rose  whilst  yet  is  prime, 

For  soon  comes  age  that  will  her  pride  deflowre ; 
Gather  the  rose  of  love  whilst  yet  is  time, 
Whilst  loving  thou  mayst  loved  be  with  equall  crime.' " 

But  Guyon  holds  on  his  way  unswervingly,  and  at  last 
comes  upon  Acrasia,  whom  he  seizes  and  binds,  together 
with  her  lover,  a  foolish,  dissipated  youth  with  the 
strangely  modern  name  of  Verdant.  Then  the  knight 
breaks  down  all  those  pleasant  bowers  "  with  vigour 

33* 


390  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

pittilesse  ;  "  and  the  palmer  turns  back  into  their  natu- 
ral shape  a  crowd  of  persons  whom  Acrasia  had,  Circe- 
like,  transformed  into  animals.  So  ends  the  canto. 

The  metre  of  "The  Faerie  Queen"  was  formed  by 
Spenser  from  the  Italian  ottava  rima,  or  eight-line  stanza 
(said  to  have  been  invented  by  Boccaccio),  by  the  addi- 
tion of  a  ninth  line,  two  syllables  longer  than  the  rest. 
This,  however,  is  not  the  only  distinction,  for  the  inter- 
nal organization  of  the  two  stanzas  is  widely  different. 
That  of  Spenser  closely  resembles  in  this  respect 
the  Chaucerian  heptastich,  the  essential  character  of 
both  being  fixed  by  the  rhyming  of  the  fifth  line  to 
the  fourth.  Strike  out  from  the  Spenserian  stanza  the 
sixth  and  seventh  lines,  rhyming  respectively  to  the 
eighth  and  fifth,  and  cut  off  the  two  extra  syllables  in 
the  last  line,  and  you  have  at  once  the  Chaucerian 
heptastich.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  Spenserian 
is  a  more  subtly  constructed  stanza  than  the  ottava  rima; 
yet,  from  its  length,  it  tends  to  become  unwieldy,  and 
therefore  requires  to  be  managed  with  the  utmost  skill. 
The  use  of  it  with  Spenser  seems  to  have  become  a  sort 
of  second  nature :  when  employed  by  others,  even  by 
so  considerable  a  poet  as  Byron,  it  does  not  escape  from 
being  occasionally  wearisome. 

Thomson,  in  his  "  Castle  of  Indolence,"  succeeded 
remarkably  well  in  imitating  the  roll  of  the  Spenserian 
stanza.  The  first  canto,  which,  as  Dr.  Johnson  observes, 
44  opens  a  scene  of  lazy  luxury  that  fills  the  imagination," 
dilates  with  evident  gusto  on  the  pleasures  of  a  life  of  in- 
dolence. Thomson  himself  is  described  in  the  following 
stanza,  said  to  have  been  written  by  Lord  Lyttleton :  — 

"A  bard  here  dwelt,  more  fat  than  bard  beseems, 

Who  void  of  envy,  guile,  and  lust  of  gain, 
On  virtue  still  and  virtue's  pleasing  themes 
Poured  forth  his  unpremeditated  strain ; 


NARRATIVE  POETRY.  391 

The  world  forsaking  with  a  calm  disdain, 
Here  laughed  he  careless  in  his  easy  seat ; 

Here  quaffed,  encircled  with  the  joyous  train, 
Oft  moralizing  sage :  his  ditty  sweet 
He  loathed  much  to  write,  ne  cared  to  repeat." 

In  the  second  canto  the  haunt  of  "  lazy  luxury  "  is 
broken  in  upon  by  the  "  Knight  of  Arts  and  Industry," 
who  destroys  the  castle,  and  puts  to  flight  its  inmates. 

The  other  form  of  allegorical  composition  is  the 
fable  or  apologue,  in  which,  under  the  guise  of  things 
said  or  done  by  the  inferior  animals,  tendencies  in 
human  nature  are  illustrated,  maxims  of  practical  wis- 
dom enforced,  and  the  besetting  vices  and  inconsisten- 
cies of  man  exposed.  Fables  are  short,  because  they 
are  severally  confined  to  the  illustration  of  a  single 
maxim  or  tendency,  and  would  inculcate  their  moral 
less  strikingly  were  the  story  enveloped  in  many  words. 
In  this  kind  of  composition,  the  only  considerable  met- 
rical work  in  our  literature  is  Gay's  Fables.  The  idea 
of  versifying  jEsop  was  taken  by  Gay  from  Lafontaine, 
but  executed  with  far  inferior  power  and  grace.  The 
following  is  a  fair  sample  of  the  collection :  — 

"  THE  TURKEY  AND  THE  ANT. 

"  In  other  men  we  faults  can  spy, 
And  blame  the  mote  that  dims  their  eye, 
Each  little  speck  and  blemish  find ; 
To  our  own  stronger  errors  blind. 
A  turkey,  tired  of  common  food, 
Forsook  the  barn,  and  sought  the  wood ; 
Behind  her  ran  an  infant  train, 
Collecting  here  and  there  a  grain. 
*  Draw  near,  my  birds ! '  the  mother  cries : 
'  This  hill  delicious  fare  supplies  : 
Behold  the  busy  negro  race, 
See  millions  blacken  all  the  place ! 
Fear  not ;  like  me,  with  freedom  eat ; 
An  ant  is  most  delightful  meat. 


392  HISTOKY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

How  blessed,  how  envied  were  our  life, 

Could  we  but  'scape  the  poulterer's  knife! 

But  man,  cursed  man,  on  turkeys  preys, 

And  Christmas  shortens  all  our  days. 

Sometimes  with  oysters  we  combine, 

Sometimes  assist  the  savory  chine ; 

From  the  low  peasant  to  the  lord, 

The  turkey  smokes  on  every  board. 

Sure,  men  for  gluttony  are  cursed, 

Of  the  seven  deadly  sins  the  worst.' 

An  ant,  who  climbed  beyond  her  reach, 

Thus  answered  from  the  neighboring  beech :  — 

1  Ere  you  remark  another's  sin, 

Bid  your  own  conscience  look  within : 

Control  thy  more  voracious  bill, 

Nor  for  a  breakfast  nations  kill." 

A  variety  of  other  fables  and  apologues  in  versa  lie 
scattered  over  the  literary  field,  some  of  which  are 
sufficiently  spirited  and  entertaining.  Among  the  best 
of  these  are  Mrs.  Thrale's  "  Three  Warnings,"  and 
Merrick's  "  Chameleon." 

4.  By  romantic  poems,  the  name  assigned  to  the 
fourth  subdivision  of  narrative  poetry,  we  mean  poems 
in  which  heroic  subjects  are  epically  treated,  after  the 
manner  of  the  old  romances  of  chivalry,  yet  in  which 
neither  the  subject  nor  the  form  rises  to  the  true 
dignity  of  the  epic.  Such  poems  are  essentially  the 
fruit  of  modern  times  and  modern  ideas.  Between  the 
period  of  the  Renaissance,  when  the  production  of 
metrical  romances  ceased,  and  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  the  taste  of  European  society  pre- 
ferred, both  in  art  and  literature,  works  modelled  upon 
the  masterpieces  of  Greek  and  Roman  genius,  and 
recoiled  with  an  aversion,  more  or  less  sincere,  from  all 
that  was  Gothic  or  mediaeval.  In  such  a  period,  a 
romantic  poem,  had  it  appeared,  would  have  been 
crushed  by  the  general  ridicule,  or  smothered  under  the 
general  neglect.  But,  towards  the  close  of  the 


NARRATIVE   POETRY.  393 

eighteenth  century,  a  re-action  set  in ;  and  the  romantic 
poems  of  Scott  and  his  imitators  are  one  among  many 
of  its  fruits. 

"  The  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,"  the  earliest  of 
these  productions  (1805),  exhibits  the  influence  of  the 
old  romances  much  more  decidedly  than  those  of  later 
date.  Expressions  and  half-lines  constantly  occur  in 
it,  which  are  transferred  unaltered  from  the  older  com- 
positions; and  the  vivid  and  minute  description  of 
Branksome  Hall,  with  which  the  poem  opens,  is  exactly 
in  the  style  of  the  graphic  old  Trouveres  :  — 

"  Nine  and  twenty  knights  of  fame 

Hung  their  shields  in  Branksome  Hall ; 
Nine  and  twenty  squires  of  name 
Brought  them  their  steeds  to  hower  from  stall ; 
Nine  and  twenty  yeomen  tall 
Waited,  duteous,  on  them  all : 
They  were  all  knights  of  mettle  true, 
Kinsmen  to  the  bold  Buccleuch. 

Ten  of  them  were  sheathed  in  steel, 
With  belted  sword,  and  spur  on  heel : 
They  quitted  not  their  harness  bright 
Neither  by  day  nor  yet  by  night  • 

They  lay  down  to  rest, 

With  corslet  laced, 
Pillowed  on  buckler  cold  and  hard ; 

They  carved  at  the  meal 

With  gloves  of  steel, 
And  they  drank  the  red  wine  through  the  helm«t  hspred- 

Ten  squires,  ten  yeomen,  mail-clad  men, 

Waited  the  beck  of  the  warders  ten ; 

Thirty  steeds,  both  fleet  and  wight, 

Stood  saddled  in  stable  day  and  night, 

Barbed  with  frontlet  of  steel,  I  trow, 

And  with  Jedwood-axe  at  saddle-bow ; 

A  hundred  more  fed  free  in  stall : 

Such  was  the  custom  of  Branksome  Hall." 

The  popularity  of  the  "  Lay  "  naturally  induced  Scctt 
to  go  on  working  in  the  same  mine :  "  Marmion  "  came 


394  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

out  in  1808,  and  "  The  Lady  of  the  Lake  "  in  1810. 
"  Marmion,"  though  it  has  fine  passages,  is  faulty  as  a 
poem.  The  introductions  to  the  cantos,  addressed  to  six 
of  his  friends,  are  so  long,  and  touch  upon  such  a  variety 
of  topics,  that  the  impressions  they  create  interfere  with 
those  which  the  story  itself  is  intended  to  produce ;  nor 
have  they  much  intrinsic  merit,  if  we  except  that  to 
William  Rose,  containing  the  famous  memorial  lines  on 
Pitt  and  Fox.  In  "  The  Lady  of  the  Lake,"  Scott's 
poetical  style  reaches  its  acme.  Here  the  romantic  tale 
culminates :  the  utmost  that  can  be  expected  from  a 
kind  of  poetry  far  below  the  highest,  and  from  a  metre 
essentially  inferior  to  the  heroic,  is  here  attained.  The 
story  is  conducted  with  much  art ;  the  characters  are 
interesting,  the  scenery  glorious,  the  versification  far 
less  faulty  than  in  "  Marmion." 

Byron's  Oriental  tales  — "The  Giaour,"  "  The  Cor- 
sair," "  The  Bride  of  Abydos,"  &c.  —  are  but  imitations, 
with  changed  scenery  and  accessories,  of  Scott's  roman- 
tic poems,  though  they  displaced  them  for  a  time  in  the 
public  favor.  But  "  The  Lady  of  the  Lake  "  will  prob- 
ably outlive  "  The  Corsair,"  because  it  appeals  to  wider 
and  more  permanent  sympathies.  The  young,  the  vehe- 
ment, the  restless,  delight  in  the  latter,  because  it  reflects 
and  glorifies  to  their  imagination  the  wild  disorder  of 
their  own  spirits :  the  aged  and  the  calm  find  little  in  it 
to  prize  or  to  commend.  But  the  former  poem,  besides 
that  "  hurried  frankness  of  composition  which  pleases 
soldiers,  sailors,  and  young  people  of  bold  and  active 
disposition,"  l  has  attractions  also  for  the  firm,  even  mind 
of  manhood,  and  the  pensiveness  of  age.  The  truth 
and  vividness  of  its  painting,  whether  of  manners  or  of 
nature,  delight  the  one  ;  the  healthy  buoyancy  of  tone, 
recalling  the  days  of  its  youthful  vigor,  pleasantly  inter- 
ests the  other. 

1  Life  of  Scott:  Diaiy. 


NARRATIVE  POETRY.  395 

The  following  extract  is  from  the  well-known  Pirate's 
Song,  with  which  "  The  Corsair  "  opens  :  — 

"  O'er  the  glad  waters  of  the  dark  blue  sea, 
Our  thoughts  as  boundless  and  our  souls  as  free, 
Far  as  the  breeze  can  bear,  the  billows  foam, 
Survey  our  empire,  and  behold  our  home. 
These  are  our  realms ;  no  limits  to  their  sway : 
Our  flag  the  sceptre  all  who  meet  obey. 
Ours  the  wild  life  in  tumult  still  to  range 
From  toil  to  rest,  and  joy  in  every  change. 
Oh,  who  can  tell?  —  not  thou,  luxurious  slave, 
Whose  soul  would  sicken  o'er  the  heaving  wave; 
Not  thou,  vain  lord  of  wantonness  and  ease, 
Whom  slumber  soothes  not,  pleasure  cannot  please,  — 
Oh !  who  can  tell,  save  he  whose  heart  hath  tried, 
And  danced  in  triumph  o'er  the  waters  wide, 
The  exulting  sense,  the  pulse's  maddening  play, 
That  thrills  the  wanderer  of  that  trackless  way ; 
That  for  itself  can  woo  the  approaching  fight, 
And  turn  what  some  deem  danger  to  delight; 
That  seeks  what  cravens  shun  with  more  than  zeal, 
And,  where  the  feebler  faint,  can  only  feel,  — 
Feel  to  the  rising  bosom's  inmost  core, 
Its  hope  awaken  and  its  spirit  soar?" 

Moore's  "  Lalla  Rookh  "  is  also  a  romantic  poem,  more 
musical  and  more  equably  sustained  than  those  of  Byron, 
but  inferior  to  his  in  force,  and  to  Scott's  both  in  force 
and  nobleness.  One  passage  we  will  give  :  it  is  that  in 
which  the  Peri,  whose  admission  to  Paradise  depends 
upon  her  finding  a  gift  for  the  Deity  which  will  be  meet 
for  his  acceptance,  and  who  has  already  vainly  offered 
the  heart's  blood  of  a  hero  fallen  in  his  country's  defence, 
and  the  last  sigh  of  a  maiden  who  had  sacrificed  her  life 
for  her  lover,  finds  at  last  the  acceptable  gift,  in  the  tear 
of  penitence  shed  by  one  who  had  seemed  hardened  in 
crime :  — 

"  But,  hark!  the  vesper-call  to  prayer, 

As  slow  the  orb  of  daylight  sets, 
Is  rising  sweetly  on  the  air 

From  Syria's  thousand  minarets. 


396  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

The  boy  has  started  from  the  bed 

Of  flowers,  where  he  had  laid  his  head, 

And  down  upon  the  fragrant  sod 

Kneels,  with  his  forehead  to  the  south, 
Lisping  the  eternal  name  of  God 

From  purity's  own  cherub  mouth, 
And  looking,  while  his  hands  and  eyes 
Are  lifted  to  the  glowing  skies, 
Like  a  stray  babe  of  Paradise, 
Just  lighted  on  that  flowery  plain, 
And  Mvking  for  its  home  again. 
.)h,  'twas  a  sight,  —  that  heaven,  that  child,  — 
A  scent-  wh'u-h  might  have  well  beguiled 
Even  hauuhty  Eblis  of  a  sigh 
For  glories  lost,  and  peace  gone  by. 

And  how  felt  ?ie,  the  wretched  man 

Reclining  there,  while  memory  ran 

O'er  many  a  year  of  guilt  and  strife, 

Flew  o'er  the  dark  field  of  his  life, 

Nor  found  one  sunny  resting-place, 

Nor  brought  him  back  one  branch  of  grace? 

*  There  was  a  time,'  he  said,  in  mild 

Heart-humbled  tones,  '  thou  blessed  child ! 

When,  young  and  haply  pure  as  thou, 

I  looked  and  prayed  like  thee;  but  now'  — 

He  hung  his  head:  each  nobler  aim 

And  hope  and  feeling,  which  had  slept 
From  boyhood's  hour,  that  instant  came 

Fresh  o'er  him,  and  he  wept  —  he  wept ! " 

5.  The  historical  poem  is  a  metrical  narrative  of 
public  events,  extending  over  a  period  more  or  less  pro- 
longed of  a  nation's  history.  It  lies  open  to  the  obvious 
objection,  that,  if  the  intention  be  merely  to  communi- 
cate facts,  they  can  be  more  easily  and  clearly  described 
in  prose ;  if  to  write  something  poetically  beautiful,  the 
want  of  unity  of  plan,  and  the  restraints  which  the  his- 
torical style  imposes  on  the  imagination,  must  be  fatal 
to  success.  Hence  the  rhyming  chronicles  of  "  Laya- 
mon,"  "  Robert  of  Gloucester,"  and  "  Robert  Manning," 
though  interesting  to  the  historian  of  our  literature,  are 


DIDACTIC   POETRY.  397 

no  value  to  the  critic.  In  Dryden's  "  Annus  Mirab- 
ilis,"  the  defects  of  this  style  are  less  apparent,  because 
the  narrative  is  confined  to  the  events  of  one  year,  and 
that  year  (1666)  was  rendered  memorable  by  two  great 
calamities,  neither  of  which  was  unsusceptible  of  poetic 
treatment,  —  the  Great  Plague,  and  the  Fire  of  London. 
Yet,  after  all,  the  "  Annus  Mirabilis  "  is  a  dull  poem ; 
few  readers  would  now  venture  upon  the  interminable 
series  of  its  lumbering  stanzas. 

Didactic  Poetry:  "The  Hind  and  Panther,"  "Essay  on  Man," 
"  Essay  on  Criticism,"  "Vanity  of  Human  Wishes." 

We  have  now  arrived  at  the  didactic  class  of  poems, 
those,  namely,  in  which  it  is  the  express  object  of  the 
writer  to  inculcate  some  moral  lesson,  some  religious 
tenet,  or  some  philosophical  opinion.  Pope's  "  Essay  on 
Man,"  Dryden's  "  Hind  and  Panther,"  and  many  other 
well-known  poems,  answer  to  this  description. 

All,  or  very  nearly  all,  the  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  com- 
posed subsequently  to  the  introduction  of  Christianity, 
bears  a  didactic  character.  Of  Caedmon,  the  Venerable 
Bede  remarks,  that  he  "  never  composed  an  idle  verse ; " 
that  is  to  say,  his  poetical  aims  were  always  didactic. 
A  large  proportion  also  of  the  English  poetry  produced 
in  the  three  centuries  following  the  Conquest  had  direct 
instruction  in  view.  Most  of  Chaucer's  allegories  point 
to  some  kind  of  moral ;  but  the  father  of  our  poetry 
seems  to  have  thought,  that,  when  a  writer  desired  to  be 
purely  and  simply  didactic,  he  should  employ  prose ;  for 
the  only  two  of  the  "  Canterbury  Tales  "  which  answer 
to  that  description  —  "The  Parson's  Tale  on  Penance," 
and  "  The  Tale  of  Melibaeus,"  enforcing  the  duty  of  the 
forgiveness  of  injuries  —  are  in  prose.  Shakspeare  never 
wrote  a  didactic  poem,  though  there  is  no  limit  to  the 
suggestiveness  and  thought-enkindling  power  of  his  preg- 

34 


398  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

nant  lines.  The  same  may  be  said  of  Milton  ;  yet,  as 
might  be  expected  from  the  extreme  earnestness  of  the 
man,  a  subordinate  didactic  purpose  is  often  traceable,  not 
only  in  the  "  Paradise  Lost,"  but  in  the  "  Comus,"  the 
"  Lycidas,"  and  even  the  "  Sonnets."  The  earliest  regu- 
lar didactic  poem  in  the  language  is  "The  Hind  and 
Panther  "  of  Dryden,  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  was 
always  a  good  and  ready  prose-writer,  who  developed 
his  poetical  talent  late,  and  who,  but  for  his  marvellous 
genius  for  rhyme,  which  grew  constantly  with  his  years, 
would  have  preferred,  one  might  fancy,  prose  to  verse 
for  a  religious  polemic,  as  he  had  preferred  it  twenty 
years  before  for  an  essay  on  the  drama.  However,  we 
must  be  thankful,  that,  by  indulging  his  genius  in  this 
instance,  he  has  left  us  a  very  extraordinary  specimen 
of  metrical  dialectics. 

"  The  Hind  and  Panther  "  cannot  properly  be  called 
an  allegory,  for  over  the  greater  portion  of  it  there  is 
no  second  meaning  in  reserve  ;  the  obvious  sense  is  the 
only  one.  The  interlocutors  and  mute  personages  are 
allegorical,  and  that  is  all.  Instead  of  Bossuet  and 
Burnet,  we  have  the  Hind  and  the  Panther ;  but  the 
expressions  which  are  put  in  the  mouths  of  the  animals 
are,  for  the  most  part,  precisely  those  which  might  have 
been  put  in  the  mouths  of  the  divines.  In  the  two 
following  extracts  the  rival  disputants  are  introduced 
to  the  reader :  — 

"A  milk-white  hind,  immortal  and  unchanged, 
Fed  on  the  lawns,  and  in  the  forest  ranged ; 
Without  unspotted,  innocent  within, 
She  feared  no  danger,  for  she  knew  no  sin : 
Yet  had  she  oft  been  chased  with  horns  and  hounds, 
And  Scythian  shafts ;  was  often  forced  to  fly, 
And  doomed  to  death,  though  fated  not  to  die." 

The  Independents,  Quakers,  Free-thinkers,  Anabap- 
tists, Socinians,  and  Presbyterians,  are  next  enumerated, 


DIDACTIC   POETRY.  399 

under  the  emblems  of  the  bear,  the  hare,  the  ape,  the 
boar,  the  fox,  and  the  wolf.  The  lion,  whose  business, 
as  king  of  beasts,  is  to  keep  order  in  the  forest,  is,  of 
course,  James  II.  The  Panther  is  then  introduced :  — 

"  The  panther,  sure  the  noblest  next  the  hind, 
And  fairest  creature  of  the  spotted  kind ; 
Oh,  could  her  inborn  stains  be  washed  away, 
She  were  too  good  to  be  a  beast  of  prey ! 
How  can  I  praise  or  blame,  and  not  offend, 
Or  how  divide  the  frailty  from  the  friend  ? 
Her  faults  and  virtues  lie  so  mixed,  that  she 
Not  wholly  stands  condemned,  nor  wholly  free. 
Then,  like  her  injured  lion,  let  me  speak; 
He  cannot  bend  her,  and  he  would  not  break. 


If,  as  our  dreaming  Platonists  report, 

There  could  be  spirits  of  a  middle  sort, 

Too  black  for  heaven,  and  yet  too  white  for  hell, 

Who  just  dropped  half  way  down,  nor  lower  fell ; 

So  poised,  so  gently  she  descends  from  high, 

It  seems  a  soft  dismission  from  the  sky." 

The  first  two  books  are  taken  up  with  doctrinal  dis- 
cussions. The  third  opens  with  a  long  desultory 
conversation,  partly  on  politics,  partly  on  pending  or 
recent  theological  controversies  (that  between  Dryden 
and  Stillingfleet,  for  instance),  partly  on  church  parties 
and  the  sincerity  of  conversions.  The  language  put  in 
the  mouth  of  the  hind  often  jars  most  absurdly  with 
the  gentle,  magnanimous  nature  assigned  to  her;  and  in 
her  sallies  and  rejoinders  the  tone  of  the  coarse  unscru- 
pulous party- writer  appears  without  the  least  disguise. 
This  conversation  is  ended  by  the  panther  proposing  to 
relate  the  tale  of  the  swallows.  By  these  birds  the 
English  Catholics  are  intended,  who,  following  the 
foolish  counsels  of  the  martin  (Father  Petre,  James's 
trusted  adviser),  are  expelled  from  their  nests,  and 
perish  miserably.  A  conversation  follows  on  the  poli- 


400  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

tics  of  the  Church  of  England.  Viewed  in  the  light 
of  subsequent  events,  the  confidence  expressed  by  the 
hind  in  the  panther's  immovable  adherence  to  her  non- 
resistance  principles  excites  a  smile.  The  hind  next 
volunteers  the  story  of  the  pigeons,  by  whom  are  meant 
the  Anglican  clergy.  Their  ringleader,  the  buzzard, 
is  a  satirical  sketch  of  Burnet,  an  important  actor  in 
the  intrigues  which  brought  on  the  Revolution.  By 
following  the  buzzard's  counsel,  the  pigeons  draw 
down  upon  themselves  the  righteous  wrath  of  the 
farmer  (James  II.).  The  poem  then  ends  abruptly. 

The  most  remarkable  didactic  poem  in  the  language  is 
Pope's  "  Essay  On  Man,"  written  in  1732.  Mandeville 
and  others  had  recently  impugned  the  benevolence  and 
sanctity  of  the  Deity  by  pointing  out  a  variety  of  evils 
and  imperfections  in  the  system  of  things,  and  assert- 
ing that  these  were  necessary  to  the  welfare  and  stabil- 
ity of  human  society.  This  is  the  whole  argument  of 
"  The  Fable  of  the  Bees."  Pope  in  his  Essay  under- 
takes to  "  vindicate  the  ways  of  God  to  man."  And 
how  does  he  do  so?  Not  —  with  regard  to  physical 
evil  —  by  admitting,  indeed,  with  the  apostle,  that  the 
"  whole  creation  groaneth  and  travail eth  in  pain  to- 
gether," but  connecting  its  imperfect  condition  with 
the  original  sin  and  fall  of  moral  agents;  not  —  with 
regard  to  moral  evil  —  by  tracing  it  to  man's  abuse  of 
his  free  will,  permitted  but  not  designed  by  his  Creator, 
and  to  the  ceaseless  activity  of  evil  spirits  ;  but,  by 
representing  evil,  moral  as  well  as  physical,  to  be  a 
part  of  God's  providential  scheme  for  the  government 
of  the  universe,  to  be,  in  fact,  not  absolutely  and  essen- 
tially evil,  but  only  relatively  and  incidentally  so :  — 

"  All  partial  evil,  universal  good." 
All  this  was  pointed  out,  shortly  after  the  appearance 


DIDACTIC   POETEY.  401 

of  the  essay,  in  a  criticism  from  the  pen  of  Crousaz,  a 
Swiss  professor.  Warburton,  in  the  commentary  which 
he  attached  to  a  new  edition  of  the  poem  in  1740,  re- 
plied to  the  strictures  of  Crousaz,  and  with  much  pains 
and  ingenuity  endeavored  to  give  an  innocent  meaning 
to  all  the  apparently  questionable  passages.  Ruffhead, 
in  his  Life  of  Pope,  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that 
Warburton  completely  succeeded.  Johnson  was  more 
clear-sighted.  In  his  Life  of  Pope,  after  saying  that 
Bolingbroke  supplied  the  poet  with  the  principles  of  the 
Essay,  he  adds,  "  These  principles  it  is  not  my  business 
to  clear  from  obscurity,  dogmatism,  or  falsehood."  And 
again,  "  The  positions  which  he  transmitted  from 
Bolingbroke  he  seems  not  to  have  understood,  and  was 
pleased  with  an  interpretation  which  made  them  ortho- 
dox." But  what  sense  but  one  is  it  possible  to  attach 
to  such  passages  as  the  following  ?  — 

"If  plagues  or  earthquakes  break  not  heaven's  design, 
Why,  then,  a  Borgia  or  a  Catiline  ? 
Who  knows  but  He,  whose  hand  the  lightning  forms, 
Who  heaves  old  Ocean,  and  who  wings  the  storms, 
Pours  fierce  ambition  in  a  Ccesar's  mind, 
Or  turns  young  Ammon  loose  to  scourge  mankind  ? 
From  pride,  from  pride,  our  very  reasoning  springs ; 
Account  for  moral  as  for  natural  things : 
Why  charge  we  heaven  in  those,  in  these  acquit  ? 
In  both,  to  reason  right  is  to  submit." 

Evidently  God  is  here  made  not  the  permitter  only,  but 
the  designer,  of  moral  evil.  Again,  — 

"  Submit,  in  this  or  any  other  sphere, 
Secure  to  be  as  blest  as  thou  canst  bear." 

From  this  dictum,  left  unguarded  as  it  is,  it  might  be 
inferred  that  virtue,  and  the  acting  in  obedience  to 
conscience  or  against  it,  had  nothing  to  do  with  man's 
blessedness.  Again,  — 

34- 


402  HISTOEY   OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

"  Who  sees  with  equal  eye,  as  God  of  all, 
A  hero  perish,  or  a  sparrow  falL" 

Yet  we  are  told,  "  You  are  of  more  value  than  many 
sparrows."  Phenomena  in  the  moral  world  are  here 
confounded  with  phenomena  in  the  natural.  With 
God  there  is  neither  small  nor  great  in  a  material 
sense  ;  so  far  these  lines  convey  a  just  lesson.  But 
how  can  any  thing  which  affects  the  welfare  of  a 
human  soul  —  be  it  that  of  a  "  hero  "  or  of  a  pauper  — 
be  measured  by  a  standard  of  material  greatness  ? 

Alive  to  the  weak  points  in  the  morality  of  the  Essay, 
Pope  wrote  "  The  Universal  Prayer,"  as  a  kind  of  com- 
pendious exposition  of  the  meaning  which  he  desired 
to  be  attached  to  it.  In  this  he  says  that  the  Creator,  — 

"Binding  Nature  fast  in  fate, 
Left  free  the  human  will." 

How  this  can  be  reconciled  with  the  suggestion  to  — 
"  Account  for  moral  as  for  natural  things,"  — 

Warburton  never  attempted  to  explain. 

Mr.  Carruthers,  in  his  Life  of  Pope,  speaks  of  this 
controversy  as  if  it  could  have  no  interest  for  people  of 
the  present  generation,  who  read  the  Essay  for  the  sake 
of  its  brilliant  rhetoric  and  exquisite  descriptions,  and 
do  not  trouble  themselves  about  the  reasoning.  But, 
whether  they  are  conscious  of  it  or  not,  the  moral  tone 
of  the  poem  does  influence  men's  minds,  as  the  use 
which  is  constantly  made  of  certain  well-known  lines 
sufficiently  demonstrates.1  It  was  necessary,  therefore, 

1  For  instance :  — 

"  For  forms  of  government  let  fools  contest: 
Whate'e'r  is  best  administered  is  best. 
For  modes  of  faith  let  graceless  zealots  fight  : 
His  can't  be  wrong  whose  life  is  in  the  right. 
In  faith  and  hope  mankind  may  disagree, 
But  all  the  world's  concern  is  charity." 


DIDACTIC  POETRY.  403 

to  commence  our  notice  of  .the  poem  with  this  brief 
criticism  of  its  general  drift.  We  now  proceed  to 
quote  one  or  two  passages  from  this  wonderful  produc- 
tion, which  is  stamped  throughout  with  an  intellectual 
force  which  was  perhaps  never  exceeded  among  the 
sons  of  men. 

"  Lo !  the  poor  Indian,  whose  untutored  mind 
Sees  God  in  clouds,  or  hears  him  in  the  wind : 
His  soul  proud  science  never  taught  to  stray 
Far  as  the  solar  walk  or  milky  way ; 
Yet  simple  nature  to  his  hope  has  given, 
Behind  the  cloud-topped  hill,  an  humbler  heaven ; 
Some  safer  world  in  depth  of  woods  embraced, 
Some  happier  island  in  the  watery  waste, 
Where  slaves  once  more  their  native  land  behold, 
No  fiends  torment,  no  Christians  thirst  for  gold. 
To  be,  contents  his  natural  desire : 
He  asks  no  angel's  wing,  no  seraph's  fire; 
But  thinks,  admitted  to  that  equal  sky, 
His  faithful  dog  shall  bear  him  company." 

The  optimism  which  is  the  philosophical  key-note  of 
the  Essay,  which  Leibnitz  had  rendered  fashionable  by 
his  "  Theodicea,"  and  Voltaire  was  to  turn  into  ridicule 
in  his  "Candide,"  is  thus  summed  up  at  the  end  of 
the  first  part :  — 

"  Submit,  in  this  or  any  other  sphere, 
Secure  to  be  as  blest  as  thou  canst  bear ; 
Safe  in  the  hand  of  one  disposing  Power, 
Or  in  the  natal  or  the  mortal  hour. 
All  nature  is  but  art,  unknown  to  thee ; 
All  chance,  direction  which  thou  canst  not  see ; 
All  discord,  harmony  not  understood ; 
All  partial  evil,  universal  good; 
And,  spite  of  pride,  in  erring  reason's  spite, 
One  truth  is  clear:  Whatever  is,  is  right." 

The  following  analysis  of  fame  is  from  the  fourth 
part :  — 


404  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

"  What's  fame  ?    A  fancied  life  in  others'  breath, 
A  thing  beyond  us,  e'enT)efore  our  death; 
Just  what  you  hear,  you  have;  and  what's  unknown, 
The  same  (my  lord)  if  Tully's  or  your  own. 
All  that  we  feel  of  it  begins  and  ends 
In  the  small  circle  of  our  foes  and  friends ; 
To  all  beside,  as  much  an  empty  shade 
As  Eugene  living,  or  a  Csesar  dead ; 
Alike  or  when  or  where  they  shone  or  shine, 
Or  on  the  Rubicon  or  on  the  Rhine. 
A  wit's  a  feather,  and  a  chief  a  rod : 
An  honest  man's  the  noblest  work  of  God. 

All  fame  is  foreign  but  of  true  desert, 

Plays  round  the  head,  but  comes  not  to  the  heart. 

One  self-approving  hour  whole  years  outweighs 

Of  stupid  starers,  and  of  loud  huzzas ; 

And  more  true  joy  Marcellus  exiled  feels, 

Than  Caesar  with  a  senate  at  his  heels." 

"  The  Essay  on  Criticism "  must  also  be  classed 
among  didactic  poems.  In  it  Pope  lays  down  rules,  in 
emulation  of  Horace's  famous  Epistle  "  De  Arte  Poeti- 
ca,"  of  Boileau's  "  Art  de  Poesie,"  and  Roscommon's 
"  Essay  on  Translated  Verse,"  for  the  guidance,  not  of 
the  writers,  but  of  the  critics,  of  poetry.  The  depth 
and  sincerity  of  the  admiration  with  which  Pope  looked 
up  to  the  ancient  masters  of  song  appear  from  many 
passages  of  this  brilliant  Essay,  particularly  from  the 
peroration  of  the  first  part,  which,  though  somewhat 
marred  by  the  anti-climax  at  the  end,  is  replete  with  a 
nervous  strength — the  poet's  voice  quivering,  as  it 
were,  with  suppressed  emotion,  yet  not  less  clear  or 
musical  for  the  weakness  —  which  it  is  easier  to  feel 
than  to  describe. 

"  Still  green  with  bays  each  ancient  altar  stands, 
Above  the  reach  of  sacrilegious  hands ; 
Secure  from  flames,  from  envy's  fiercer  rage, 
Destructive  war,  and  all-involving  age. 


DIDACTIC  POETRY.  405 

See,  from  each  clime  the  learned  their  incense  bring ! 
Hear,  in  all  tongues  consenting  paeans  ring ! 
In  praise  so  just  let  every  voice  be  joined, 
And  fill  the  general  chorus  of  mankind. 
Hail,  bards  triumphant !  born  in  happier  days, 
Immortal  heirs  of  universal  praise ! 
Whose  honors  with  increase  of  ages  grow, 
As  streams  roll  down,  enlarging  as  they  flow ; 
Nations  unborn  your  mighty  names  shall  sound, 
And  worlds  applaud  that  must  not  yet  be  found ! 
Oh !  may  some  spark  of  your  celestial  fire, 
The  last,  the  meanest,  of  your  sons  inspire, 
(That  on  weak  wings  from  far  pursues  your  flights, 
Glows  while  he  reads,  but  trembles  as  he  writes), 
To  teach  vain  wits  a  science  little  known,  — 
To  admire  superior  sense,  and  doubt  their  own." 

Johnson's  poem  on  the  "  Vanit}^  of  Human  Wishes  " 
is  imitated  from  the  tenth  Satire  of  Juvenal.  The  strik- 
ing passage  on  Hannibal  ("  expende  Hannibalem"  &c.)  is 
transferred  to  Charles  XII.  of  Sweden.  The  lines  will 
quotation :  — 

*'  On  what  foundations  stands  the  warrior's  pride, 
How  just  his  hopes,  let  Swedish  Charles  decide. 
A  frame  of  adamant,  a  soul  of  fire, 
No  dangers  fright  him,  and  no  labors  tire ; 
O'er  love,  o'er  fear,  extends  his  wide  domain, 
Unconquered  lord  of  pleasure  and  of  pain. 
No  joys  to  him  pacific  sceptres  yield : 
War  sounds  the  trump,  he  rushes  to  the  field ; 
Behold  surrounding  kings  their  powers  combine, 
And  one  capitulate,  and  one  resign; 
Peace  courts  his  hand,  but  spreads  her  charms  in  vain ; 
'  Think  nothing  gained,'  he  cries,  '  till  nought  remain; 
On  Moscow's  walls  till  Gothic  standards  fly, 
And  all  be  mine  beneath  the  Polar  sky.' 
The  march  begins  in  military  state, 
And  nations  on  his  eye  suspended  wait ; 
Stern  Famine  guards  the  solitary  coast, 
And  Winter  barricades  the  realms  of  Frost ; 
He  comes,  nor  want  nor  cold  his  course  delay. 
Hide,  blushing  Glory,  hide  Pultowa's  day  I 


406  HISTOKY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

The  vanquished  hero  leaves  his  broken  bands, 
And  shows  his  miseries  in  distant  lands ; 
Condemned  a  needy  supplicant  to  wait, 
While  ladies  interpose,  and  slaves  debate. 
But  did  not  chance  at  length  her  error  mend  ? 
Did  no  subverted  empire  mark  his  end  ? 
Did  rival  monarchs  give  the  fatal  wound  ? 
Or  hostile  millions  press  him  to  the  ground  ? 
His  fall  was  destined  to  a  barren  strand, 
A  petty  fortress  and  a  dubious  hand ; 
He  left  the  name,  at  which  the  world  grew  pale, 
To  point  a  moral,  or  adorn  a  tale." 

Satirical  Poetry.  —  Moral,  Personal,  Political :  Hall,  Pope,  Byron, 
Butler,  Dryden,  Churchill,  Wolcot. 

The  didactic  poet  assumes  the  office  of  an  educator  ; 
the  satirist,  that  of  a  censor  morum.  The  first  has  the 
same  relation  to  the  second  which  the  schools  of  a 
country  have  to  its  courts  of  justice.  One  aims  at 
forming  virtue,  and  imparting  wisdom  ;  the  other,  at 
scourging  vice,  and  exposing  folly.  According  to  its 
proper  theory,  satire  is  the  lynch  law  of  a  civilized 
society ;  it  reaches  persons,  and  punishes  acts,  which 
the  imperfections  of  legal  justice  would  leave  unchas- 
tised.  But  could  not  such  persons  and  acts  be  more 
efficaciously  influenced  by  warnings  of  a  didactic 
nature  ?  should  they  not  be  left  to  the  philosopher  and 
the  divine  ?  The  satirist  answers,  No  :  there  is  a  class 
of  offenders  so  case-hardened  in  vanity  and  selfishness 
as  to  be  proof  against  all  serious  admonition.  To  these 
the  dictum  applies,  — 

"  Ridiculum  acri 
Fortius  et  melius  magnas  plerumque  secat  res." 

The  only  way  of  shaming  or  deterring  them  is  to 
turn  the  world's  laugh  against  them ;  to  analyze  their 
conduct,  and  show  it  up  before  the  public  gaze  as 
intrinsically  odious  and  contemptible.  He  does  not 


SATIRICAL  POETRY.  407 

expect  thereby  to  effect  any  moral  improvement  in 
them,  but  rather  to  shame  and  deter  others  who  might 
be  preparing  to  imitate  them  ;  just  as  a  good  system 
of  police  is  favorable  to  morality,  by  diminishing 
the  tempations  and  the  returns  to  wrong-doing.  The 
satirist  therefore  professes  a  moral  purpose  :  — 

"Hear  this  and  tremble,  you  who  escape  the  laws; 
Yes,  while  I  live,  no  rich  or  noble  knave 
Shall  walk  the  world  in  credit  to  his  grave ; 
To  Virtue  only  and  her  friends  a  friend, 
The  world  beside  may  murmur  or  commend."  x 

Satirical  poetry  is  divisible  into  three  classes,  —  moral, 
personal,  and  political.  By  the  first  is  meant  that 
general  satire  on  contemporary  morals  and  manners,  of 
which  Horace,  Juvenal,  and  Pope  furnish  us  with  such 
admirable  examples.  Personal  satires  are  those  which 
are  mainly  directed  against  individuals,  as  Dryden's 
"  MacFlecknoe,"  and  "  English  Bards  and  Scotch  Re- 
viewers." Political  satires  are  written  in  the  interest 
of  a  party  in  the  state  ;  the  most  famous  instance  is 
Dryden's  "  Absalom  and  Achitophel." 

In  purely  personal  satire,  the  chances  are  so  small  in 
favor  of  the  chastisement  being  administered  with 
pure  impartiality  and  justice,  that  the  world  rightly 
attaches  less  value  to  it  than  to  moral  satire.  The 
occasions  when  personal  satire  becomes  really  terrible 
are  those  when,  in  the  midst  of  a  general  moral  satire 
on  prevailing  vices  or  follies,  the  acts  and  character  of 
individuals  are  introduced  by  way  of  illustrating  the 
maxims  that  have  just  been  enunciated.  The  attack 
then  has  the  appearance  of  being  unpremeditated,  as 
if  it  had  been  simply  suggested  by  the  line  of  reflection 
into  which  the  poet  had  fallen  ;  and  its  effect  is  pro- 
portionally greater.  Pope  well  understood  this  princi- 
ple, as  we  shall  presently  see. 


408  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

In  the  middle  ages,  moral  satire  generally  seized  upon 
ecclesiastical  abuses.  The  "  Land  of  Cockaygne " 
(assigned  by  Warton  to  the  end  of  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury, but  which  must  be  at  least  a  century  later)  is  a 
satire  on  the  indolence  and  gluttony  into  which  the 
monastic  life,  when  relaxed,  has  occasionally  fallen. 
"  The  Vision  of  Piers  Plowman  "  is  in  great  part  satiri- 
cal, directing  its  attacks  chiefly  against  the  higher 
secular  clergy. 

The  satires  of  Donne  and  Hall  (the  first  of  which 
received  the  honor  of  modernization  from  Pope)  are 
too  rough  and  harsh  to  have  much  poetical  value.  For 
a  specimen  of  Hall's  powers  in  this  way,  we  take  the 
following  picture  of  a  chaplain  in  a  country  house,  at 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  :  — 

"  A  gentle  squire  would  gladly  entertaine 
Into  his  house  some  trencher-chapelaine, 
Some  willing  man  that  might  instruct  his  sons, 
And  that  would  stand  to  good  conditions :  — 
First,  that  he  lie  upon  the  truckle-bed, 
Whiles  his  young  maister  lieth  o'er  his  head ; 
Secondly,  that  he  do,  on  no  default, 
Ever  presume  to  sit  above  the  salt ; 
Third,  that  he  never  change  his  trencher  twice ; 
Fourth,  that  he  use  all  common  courtesies, 
Sit  bare  at  meales,  and  one  halfe  rise  and  wait ; 
Last,  that  he  never  his  younge  maister  beat. 


All  these  observed,  he  could  contented  be, 
To  give  five  markes  and  winter  liverie." 

Swift's  satire,  strong  and  crushing  as  it  is,  is  so  much 
the  less  effective,  because  it  seems  to  spring,  not  from 
moral  indignation,  but  from  a  misanthropical  disgust  at 
mankind.  Pope  excelled  in  satire,  as  in  every  thing  else 
that  he  attempted,  and  must  be  ranked  with  the  few 
really  great-  satirists  of  all  time.  Not  that  his  indig- 
nant denunciations  were  not  frequently  prompted  by 


SATIRICAL  POETRY.  409 

personal  pique  and  irritated  vanity ;  but  his  fine  taste 
usually  enabled  him  to  mask  his  personal  feelings 
under  the  veil,  more  or  less  transparent,  of  a  stern  and 
stoical  regard  for  virtue.  His  satirical  writings  in 
verse  consist  of  the  four  "  Moral  Essays,"  in  the  form 
of  epistles,  addressed  to  several  persons  ;  the  Epistle 
to  Dr.  Arbuthnot,  also  called  "The  Prologue  to  the 
Satires,"  "  The  Imitations  of  Horace"  (six  in  the  heroic 
couplet,  and  two  in  octo-syllabics,  after  the  manner  of 
Swift),  "  The  Epilogue  to  the  Satires,"  and  the  "  Dun- 
ciad."  Of  the  moral  Essays,  the  first,  "  Of  the  Knowl- 
edge and  Characters  of  Men,"  is,  till  just  at  the  close, 
rather  descriptive  than  satirical.  In  the  second,  "  On 
the  Characters  of  Women,"  he  dashes  at  once  into 
satire.  In  contrast  to  those  empty-headed,  frivolous 
fair  ones,  whose  "  true  no-meaning  puzzles  more  than 
wit,"  he  draws  the  celebrated  character  of  Sarah, 
Duchess  of  Marlborough  :  — 

"  But  what  are  these  to  great  Atossa's  mind, 
Scarce  once  herself,  by  turns  all  womankind : 
Who,  with  herself  or  others,  from  her  birth 
Finds  all  her  life  one  warfare  upon  earth  ; 
Shines  in  exposing  knaves,  and  painting  fools, 
Yet  is  whate'er  she  hates  and  ridicules. 
No  thought  advances,  but  her  eddy  brain 
Whisks  it  about,  and  down  it  goes  again. 
Full  sixty  years  the  world  has  been  her  trade, 
The  wisest  fool  much  time  has  ever  made. 

Offend  her,  and  she  knows  not  to  forgive  ; 
Oblige  her,  and  she'll  hate  you  while  you  live ; 
But  die,  and  she'll  adore  you:  then  the  bust 
And  temple  rise,  then  fall  again  to  dust. 
Last  night  her  lord  was  all  that's  good  and  great; 
A  knave  this  morning,  and  his  will  a  cheat. 
Strange !  by  the  means  defeated  of  the  ends, 
By  spirit  robbed  of  power,  by  warmth  of  friends, 
By  wealth  of  followers !  without  one  distress, 
Sick  of  herself,  through  very  selfishness ! 
35 


410  HISTOKY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Atossa,  cursed  with  every  granted  prayer, 
Childless  with  all  her  children,  wants  an  heir. 
To  heirs  unknown  descends  the  unguarded  store, 
Or  wanders,  heaven-directed,  to  the  poor." 

In  the  third  essay,  on  "  The  Use  of  Riches,"  after 
the  beautiful  description  of  "  The  Man  of  Ross,"  who, 
with  "  five  hundred  pounds  a  year,"  made  his  benefi- 
cent influence  felt  in  all  the  country  round,  occurs,  by 
way  of  contrast,  the  picture  of  the  closing  scene  of 
Charles  II.'s  splendid  favorite,  the  second  Duke  of 
Buckingham :  — 

"  In  the  worst  inn's  worst  room,  with  mat  half  hung, 
The  floors  of  plaster,  and  the  walls  of  dung, 
On  once  a  flock-bed,  but  repaired  with  straw, 
With  tape-tied  curtains  never  meant  to  draw, 
The  George  and  Garter  dangling  from  that  bed 
Where  tawdry  yellow  strove  with  dirty  red, 
Great  Villiers  lies  —  alas !  how  changed  from  him, 
That  life  of  pleasure,  and  that  soul  of  whim, 
Gallant  and  gay,  in  Cliveden's  proud  alcove, 
The  bower  of  wanton  Shrewsbury  and  love ; 
Or  just  as  gay  at  council,  in  a  ring 
Of  mimic  statesmen,  and  their  merry  king. 
No  wit  to  flatter  left  of  all  his  store ! 
No  fool  to  laugh  at,  which  he  valued  more ; 
There,  victor  of  his  health,  of  fortune,  friends, 
And  fame,  this  lord  of  useless  thousands  ends!" 

Pope  perhaps  took  up  this  particular  character  from  the 
ambition  of  rivalling  Dryden,  who,  as  we  shall  see  pre- 
sently, wrote  a  powerful  piece  of  satire  upon  Bucking- 
ham, in  his  "  Absalom  and  Achitophel."  The  fourth 
essay  satirizes  the  various  kinds  of  bad  taste,  but  con- 
tains no  passages  particularly  suitable  for  citation. 

In  the  epistle  to  Dr.  Arbuthnot,  —  one  of  the  bright- 
est, wittiest,  and  most  forcible  productions  of  the 
human  intellect,  —  after  lashing  the  minor  poets  of  the 
day,  all  whom  — 


SATIKICAL   POETRY.  411 

"  his  modest  satire  bade  translate, 
And  owned  that  nine  such  poets  made  a  Tate," — 

the  poet  proceeds  to  strike  at  higher  game  :  — 

"  Peace  to  all  such !  but  were  there  one  whose  fires 
True  genius  kindles,  and  fair  fame  inspires : 
Blessed  with  each  talent,  and  each  art  to  please 
And  born  to  write,  converse,  and  live  with  ease ; 
Should  such  a  man,  too  fond  to  rule  alone, 
Bear,  like  the  Turk,  no  brother  near  the  throne, 
View  him  with  scornful  yet  with  jealous  eyes, 
And  hate  for  arts  that  caused  himself  to  rise ; 
Damn  with  faint  praise,  assent  with  civil  leer, 
And,  without  sneering,  teach  the  rest  to  sneer; 
Willing  to  wound,  and  yet  afraid  to  strike, 
Just  hint  a  fault,  and  hesitate  dislike ; 
Alike  reserved  to  blame  or  to  commend, 
A  timorous  foe,  and  a  suspicious  friend ; 
Dreading  e'en  fools,  by  flatterers  besieged, 
And  so  obliging  that  he  ne'er  obliged; 
Like  Cato,  give  his  little  senate  laws, 
And  sit  attentive  to  his  own  applause ; 
While  wits  and  Templars  every  sentence  raise, 
And  wonder  with  a  foolish  face  of  praise  — 
Who  but  must  laugh,  if  such  a  man  there  be  ? 
Who  would  not  weep,  if  Atticus  l  were  he  ?  " 

It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  extracts  from  the  "  Imi- 
tations of  Horace  "  which  follow ;  but  we  must  leave 
the  reader  to  study  them  for  himself.  Sketches  of  his 
own  boyhood,  concise  but  weighty  criticisms  on  English 
poets,  savage  attacks  on  the  objects  of  his  hate  (Lord 
Hervey,  for  instance),  and  noble  descriptions,  some- 
what jarring  therewith,  of  the  ideal  dignity  and  equity 
of  satire,  —  all  this  and  more  will  be  found  in  these 
wonderful  productions.  The  two  which  are  written  in 
the  manner  of  Swift  show  a  marked  inferiority  to  the 
rest. 

In  the  "  Dunciad  "  personal  satire  predominates ;  but 

1  Addison. 


412  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITER ATTIRE. 

there  are  passages  of  more  general  bearing  in  which 
Pope  rises  to  the  full  height  of  his  genius.  Such  & 
passage  is  the  description  of  the  approach  of  the  empire 
of  Dulness,  at  the  end  of  the  poem :  — 

"  She  comes !  she  comes !  the  sable  throne  behold 
Of  Night  primeval,  and  of  Chaos  old. 
Before  her,  Fancy's  gilded  clouds  decay, 
And  all  its  varying  rainbows  die  away. 
Wit  shoots  in  vain  his  momentary  fires, 
The  meteor  drops,  and  in  a  flash  expires. 


See  skulking  Truth  to  her  old  cavern  fled, 
Mountains  of  casuistry  heaped  o'er  her  head ! 
Philosophy,  that  leaned  on  Heaven  before, 
Shrinks  to  her  second  cause,  and  is  no  more. 
Physic  of  metaphysic  begs  defence, 
And  metaphysic  calls  for  aid  on  sense ! 
See  mystery  to  mathematics  fly ! 
In  vain  !  they  gaze,  turn  giddy,  rave,  and  die. 
Religion,  blushing,  veils  her  sacred  fires, 
And  unawares  Morality  expires. 
Nor  public  flame,  nor  private,  dares  to  shine : 
Nor  human  spark  is  left,  nor  glimpse  divine  1 
Lo !  thy  dread  empire,  Chaos  1  is  restored ; 
Light  dies  before  thy  uncreating  word : 
Thy  hand,  great  Anarch !  lets  the  curtain  fall ; 
And  universal  darkness  buries  all." 

In  personal  satire,  the  main  object  is  the  exposure  of 
an  individual  or  individuals.  Skelton's  satires  on  Wol- 
sey  are  perhaps  the  earliest  example  in  our  literature. 
Dryden's  "  MacFlecknoe  "  is  an  attack  on  Shadwell,  a 
rival  dramatist  and  a  Whig,  and  therefore  doubly 
obnoxious  to  the  Tory  laureate.  Churchill's  satires, 
though  much  extolled  by  his  contemporaries,  have  little 
interest  for  modern  readers.  Gifford's  "  Baviad  and 
Mseviad  "  is  a  clever  satire  in  two  parts,  in  the  manner 
of  Pope,  on  the  affected  poets  and  poetesses  of  the 
Cruscan  school,  so  called  after  Delia  Crusca,  an  Italian, 


SATIRICAL  POETRY.  413 

the  coryphaeus  of  this  namby-pamby  tribe.     The  follow- 
ing extract  will  give  an  idea  of  its  merits  :  — 

"  Lo,  Delia  Crusca !    IK  his  closet  pent, 
He  toils  to  give  the  crude  conception  vent ; 
Abortive  thoughts,  that  right  and  wrong  confound, 
Truth  sacrificed  to  letters,  sense  to  sound, 
False  glare,  incongruous  images,  combine, 
And  noise  and  nonsense  clatter  through  the  line. 
'Tis  done.    Her  house  the  generous  Piozzi  lends, 
And  thither  summons  her  blue-stocking  friends ; 
The  summons  her  blue-stocking  friends  obey, 
Lured  by  the  love  of  poetry  and  tea." 

In  the  "English  Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers," 
Byron,  with  the  reckless  petulance  of  youth,  held  up  to 
ridicule  nearly  all  the  poets  of  his  day,  —  Scott,  Words- 
worth, Coleridge,  Southey,  Moore,  &c.  In  later  life,  how- 
ever, he  made  ample  amends  for  several  of  these  attacks, 
to  which  irritation  against  "  The  Edinburgh  Review," 
and  the  feeling  of  power,  rather  than  any  serious  dislike 
of  his  brother  poets,  had  impelled  him.  The  point  and 
spirit  of  the  poem  fall  off  after  the  first  two  hundred 
lines ;  and  it  becomes  at  last  absolutely  tedious.  The 
following  extracts  will  serve  to  illustrate  the  bold  and 
dashing  character  of  this  satire.  The  first  regards 
Southey :  — 

"  Next  see  tremendous  Thalaba  come  on, 
Arabia's  monstrous,  wild,  and  wondrous  son; 
Domdaniel's  dread  destroyer,  who  o'erthrew 
More  mad  magicians  than  the  world  e'er  knew. 
Immortal  hero!  all  thy  foes  o'ercome, 
Forever  reign  —  the  rival  of  Tom  Thumb ! 
Since  startled  metre  fled  before  thy  face, 
Well  wert  thou  doomed  the  last  of  all  thy  race, 
Well  might  triumphant  genii  bear  thee  hence, 
Illustrious  conqueror  of  common-sense." 

The  next  is  on  Wordsworth :  — 

"  Next  comes  the  dull  disciple  of  thy  school, 
That  mild  apostate  from  poetic  rule, 
35* 


414  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

The  simple  Wordsworth,  —  framer  of  a  lay 

As  soft  as  evening  in  his  favorite  May ; 

Who  warns  his  friend  to  '  shake  off  toil  and  trouble, 

And  quit  his  books,  for  fear  of  growing  double ; ' 

Who,  both  by  precept  and  example,  shows 

That  prose  is  verse,  and  verse  is  merely  prose ; 

Convincing  all,  by  demonstration  plain, 

Poetic  souls  delight  in  prose  insane, 

And  Christmas  stories  tortured  into  rhyme 

Contain  the  essence  of  the  true  sublime. 

Thus,  when  he  tells  the  Tale  of  Betty  Foy, 

The  idiot  mother  of  her  '  idiot  boy,' 

A  moon-struck  silly  lad  who  lost  his  way, 

And,  like  his  bard,  confounded  night  with  day, 

So  close  on  each  pathetic  point  he  dwells, 

And  each  adventure  so  sublimely  tells, 

That  all  who  view  the  '  idiot  in  his  glory  ' 

Conceive  the  bard  the  hero  of  the  story." 

Political  satire  castigates,  nominally  in  the  interest 
of  virtue,  but  really  in  the  interest  of  a  party,  the 
wicked  or  contemptible  qualities  of  the  adherents  of 
the  opposite  faction.  The  two  most  notable  exemplifi- 
cations in  our  literature  are  Butler's  "  Hudibras  "  and 
Dryden's  "Absalom  and  Achitophel."  The  figures  of 
Sir  Hudibras  and  Ralpho  —  the  one  intended  to  repre- 
sent the  military  Puritan,  half  hypocrite,  half  enthu- 
siast, — 

"  who  built  his  faith  upon 
The  holy  text  of  pike  and  gun ; " 

the  other  meant  to  expose  a  lower  type  of  Puritan 
character,  in  which  calculating  craft,  assuming  the 
mask  of  devotion  without  the  reality,  made  its  profits 
out  of  the  enthusiasm  of  others  —  are  satirical  crea- 
tions which,  if  not  equal  to  Don  Quixote  and  Sancho, 
can  never  lose  their  interest  in  the  country  which  pro- 
duced the  originals. 

The  satirical  portraits  in  "  Absalom  and  Achitophel " 
are  drawn  with  a  masterly  hand.  They  include  the 


SATIRICAL  POETRY.  415 

leading  statesmen  and  politicians  of  the  Whig  party 
towards  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  The  occa- 
sion of  the  satire  was  furnished  by  a  plot,  matured  by 
the  busy  brain  of  Shaftesbury,  for  placing  on  the  throne 
at  the  king's  death  his  natural  son  the  Duke  of  Mon- 
mouth,  to  the  exclusion  of  his  brother  the  Duke  of 
York.  The  story  of  Absalom's  rebellion  supplied  a  par- 
allel, singularly  close  in  some  respects,  of  which  Dry  den 
availed  himself  to  the  utmost.  Absalom  is  the  Duke  of 
Monmouth ;  Achitophel,  his  crafty  adviser,  is  the  Earl 
of  Shaftesbury ;  David  stands  for  Charles  II. ;  Zimri,  for 
the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  &c.  Some  of  the  characters, 
though  men  of  mark  at  the  time,  have  ceased  to  figure 
in  history ;  and  the  satire  on  them  interests  us  but  little. 
But  the  sketches  of  Shaftesbury,  Halifax,  Buckingham, 
and  Titus  Gates,  derive  an  interest,  independently  of 
the  skill  and  vigor  of  the  drawing,  from  the  historical 
importance  of  the  persons  represented.  Shaftesbury  is 
thus  described :  — 

"  Of  these  the  false  Achitophel  was  first, 
A  name  to  all  succeeding  ages  curst : 
For  close  designs  and  crooked  counsels  fit, 
Sagacious,  bold,  and  turbulent  of  wit;  " 

Here  follow  the  lines  given  above  at  p.  216 ;  after 
which  the  poet  proceeds,  — 

"  A  daring  pilot  in  extremity, 
Pleased  with  the  danger  when  the  waves  went  high, 
He  sought  the  storms ;  but,  for  a  calm  unfit, 
Would  steer  too  nigh  the  sands,  to  boast  his  wit. 
Great  wits  are  sure  to  madness  near  allied, 
And  thin  partitions  do  their  bounds  divide ; 
Else  why  should  he,  with  wealth  and  honor  blest, 
Refuse  his  age  the  needful  hours  of  rest  ? 
Punish  a  body  which  he  could  not  please, 
Bankrupt  of  life,  yet  prodigal  of  ease ; 
And  all  to  leave  what  with  his  toil  he  won 
To  that  unfeathered  two-legged  thing,  a  son?" 


416  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Halifax,  known  as  the  "  Trimmer,"  who  defeated  the 
Exclusion  Bill,  is  the  subject  of  a  few  laudatory  lines :  — 

"  Jotham,  of  piercing  wit  and  pregnant  thought, 
Endowed  by  nature,  and  by  learning  taught 
To  move  assemblies,  who  but  only  tried 
The  worse  a  while,  then  chose  the  better  side ; 
Nor  chose  alone,  but  turned  the  balance  too : 
So  much  the  weight  of  one  brave  man  can  do." 

The  following  sketch  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham 
may  be  compared  with  that  by  Pope  (see  p.  438),  — 

"  Some  of  their  chiefs  were  princes  of  the  land : 
In  the  first  rank  of  these  did  Ziinri  stand ; 
A  man  so  various,  that  he  seemed  to  be 
Not  one,  but  all  mankind's  epitome: 
Stiff  in  opinions,  always  in  the  wrong, 
Was  every  thing  by  fits,  and  nothing  Long ; 
But,  in  the  course  of  one  revolving  moon, 
Was  chemist,  fiddler,  statesman,  and  buffoon ; 
Then  all  for  women,  painting,  rhyming,  drinking, 
Besides  ten  thousand  freaks  that  died  in  thinking. 
Blest  madman,  who  could  every  hour  employ 
With  something  new  to  wish  or  to  enjoy ! 

In  squandering  wealth  was  his  peculiar  art ; 

Nothing  went  unrewarded  but  desert. 

Beggared  by  fools,  whom  still  he  found  too  late, 

He  had  his  jest,  and  they  had  his  estate. 

He  laughed  himself  from  court ;  then  sought  relief 

By  forming  parties,  but  could  ne'er  be  chief: 

For,  spite  of  him,  the  weight  of  business  fell 

On  Absalom  and  wise  Achitophel ; 

Thus  wicked  but  hi  will,  of  means  bereft, 

He  left  no  faction,  but  of  that  was  left." 

Gates,  the  chief  witness  in  the  Popish  plot  of  1680, 
is  the  object  of  a  long  rolling  fire  of  invectives,  from 
which  we  can  only  extract  a  few  lines  :  — 

"  His  memory,  miraculously  great, 
Could  plots  exceeding  man's  belief  repeat: 
Which  therefore  cannot  be  accounted  lies, 
For  human  wit  could  never  such  devise. 


SATIRICAL  POETRY.  417 

Some  future  truths  are  mingled  in  his  book ; 
But,  where  the  witness  failed,  the  prophet  spoke ; 
Some  things  like  visionary  flight  appear; 
The  spirit  caught  him  up,  the  Lord  knows  where, 
And  gave  him  his  rabbinical  degree, 
Unknown  to  foreign  university." 

Churchill's  "  Prophecy  of  Famine  "  was  an  unworthy 
attack  upon  the  Scotch,  written  when  the  author  was 
closely  linked  with  the  demagogue  John  Wilkes,  and 
betokening  his  influence.  The  minister,  Lord  Bute, 
had  given  places  in  England  to  several  of  his  country- 
men ;  Kino  illce  lachrymce !  There  is  no  proper  arrange- 
ment in  the  poem,  no  evidence  of  a  concerted  plan  ; 
the  writer  seems  to  have  fired  off  his  small  arms  just  as 
it  might  happen,  shooting  wildly  and  rapidly,  in  the 
vague  notion  that  some  of  the  shot  might  hit.  In  the 
early  portion  of  the  satire,  the  wit  consists,  according 
to  Churchill's  usual  manner,  in  the  ironical  ascription 
to  the  Scotch  of  virtues,  the  bad  qualities  opposite  to 
which  are  supposed  to  be  notoriously  prominent  in  their 
national  character.  Two  Scotch  shepherds,  Jockey  and 
Sawney,  are  then  introduced,  bewailing,  in  alternate 
strophes,  the  sad  condition  of  their  country  since  the 
fatal  day  of  Culloden :  they  are  joined  by  the  goddess 
Famine,  who  prophesies  the  approaching  exaltation  of 
the  nation  through  the  advent  of  a  Scotchman  (Lord 
Bute)  to  power,  who  will  enable  his  countrymen  to 
fatten  upon  the  riches  of  England.  The  names  of  de- 
mocracy and  liberty  become  hateful  in  the  mouths  of 
Wilkes,  Churchill,  and  Co.,  of  whom  it  might  truly  be 
said,  in  the  words  of  Milton,  — 

"  License  they  mean  when  they  cry  liberty." 

Politically  and  socially  this  middle  part  of  the  cen- 
tury was  a  dull  and  despicable  period,  in  which  the  only 
objects  that  relieve  the  gloom  are  the  genuine  enthu- 


418  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

siasm  of  Burke  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  keen,  cold, 
caustic  good  sense  of  Horace  Walpole  on  the  other. 
The  allusions  in  Walpole's  letters  to  Churchill's  works, 
as  they  successively  appeared,  are  full  of  point  and 
truth ;  in  fact,  the  whole  age,  in  its  meanness  and  false 
assumption,  its  hypocrisy  and  its  corruption,  is  wonder- 
fully photographed  in  the  correspondence  of  that  intel- 
ligent patrician,  who  made  no  fuss  and  endured  none, 
who  saw  things  just  as  they  were,  and  had  the  gift  of 
setting  them  down  just  as  he  saw  them. 

If  it  be  a  marked  descent  from  Dryden  to  Churchill, 
it  is  a  still  deeper  fall  from  Churchill  to  Peter  Pindar. 
John  Wolcot,  a  native  of  Devonshire,  was  educated  by 
his  uncle,  an  obscure  medical  practioner  at  Fowey,  to 
his  own  profession.  The  natural  vulgarity  of  his  mind 
was  never  corrected,  nor  his  irrepressible  conceit  ever 
rebuked,  by  the  association  with  his  betters  at  a  univer- 
sity. In  the  society  of  a  small  country  town  he  was 
an  oracle,  a  marvel  of  genius ;  there  his  sallies  were 
applauded,  his  ribaldry  mistaken  for  satire,  his  obscenity 
for  humor,  and  his  low  smartness  for  wit.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  name  a  literary  work  exhibiting  a  more  piti- 
ful debasement  of  the  human  intellect  than  "  The 
Lousiad,"  published  in  1786.  The  backstairs  tattle  of 
the  royal  household  had,  it  seems,  spread  a  story  that 
an  animal  of  that  description  had  made  its  appearance 
on  the  king's  plate  at  dinner,  who  had  ordered  the 
heads  of  all  the  cooks  and  scullions  to  be  shaved  in 
consequence.  Upon  this  incident,  real  or  imaginary, 
Wolcot  founded  what  he  calls  an  heroic-comic  poem  in 
five  cantos,  at  the  end  of  which,  in  servile  imitation  of 
Pope,  he  makes  the  Zephyr  transport  the  animal  to  the 
skies,  and  transform  him  into  a  planet,  which  is  there- 
upon discovered  by  Herschel,  and  solemnly  named  "  The 
Georgium  Sidus." 


SATIRICAL  POETRY.  419 

It  may  perhaps  be  said,  Is  not  Peter  Pindar  the 
English  Beaumarchais  ?  does  he  not,  like  him,  turn 
sham  greatness  inside  out,  and  demolish  the  supersti- 
tious awe  with  which  privileged  persons  and  classes  are 
surrounded  in  the  imaginations  of  the  vulgar  ?  No,  he 
is  not  comparable  to  Beaumarchais  ;  for  Beaumarchais 
did  a  solid  and  necessary  work,  and  he  did  not.  Con- 
tinental kings,  before  the  French  Revolution,  however 
personally  despicable  they  might  be,  were  formidable, 
because  the  political  system  was  despotic,  because  they 
wielded  an  enormous  power  irresponsibly,  and  could 
consign  to  a  perpetual  dungeon  by  their  lettres  de  cachet, 
unless  prudence  restrained  them,  any  private  citizen 
who  might  offend  them.  Yet  traditional  reverence  and 
mistaken  piety  surrounded  these  kings  with  a  halo  of 
majesty  and  sanctity  in  their  people's  eyes ;  he  therefore 
who  undermined  this  reverence,  who  exhibited  kings 
and  queens  as  just  as  miserable  forked  bipeds,  just  as 
silly,  greedy,  and  trifling,  as  men  and  women  in  general, 
did  a  good  and  necessary  work  as  one  of  the  pioneers 
of  freedom.  But  in  England,  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
kings  had  no  such  powers  ;  religious  worship,  thought, 
and  its  expression,  were  almost  entirely  free ; 1  our 
political  liberties  were  in  the  main  secure  ;  no  king 
could  send  an  Englishman  to  prison  at  his  own  caprice, 
or  subject  him  to  arbitrary  taxation,  or  deprive  him  of 
representation  in  parliament.  What  serious  harm,  then, 
could  the  utmost  conceivable  folly,  malignity,  and  even 
profligacy,  in  the  king  and  the  royal  family  do  to  the 
people  at  large  ?  None  whatever ;  there  was  therefore 
no  object  sufficient  to  justify  a  satire,  no  dignus  vindice 
nodus.  On  the  other  hand,  the  mere  fact  of  the  Hano- 
verian family  being  seated  on  the  throne,  —  however  it 
might  surround  itself  with  German  menials  and  wait- 
1  Of  course  I  am  not  speaking  of  Ireland. 


420  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

ing  women  like  Madame  Schwellenberg,  whom  Wolcot 
lashes  with  indignant  patriotism,  —  constituted,  in  the 
eyes  of  every  Englishman  of  sense,  a  standing  protest 
on  behalf  of  the  sovereign  right  of  the  people  to  con- 
trol its  own  destinies,  and  as  such  should  have  made 
that  limited  and  muzzled  royalty  sacred  from  assault. 

A  man  who  wrote  so  much,  and  whose  tongue,  as  he 
eays  of  himself,1 

"  So  copious  in  a  flux  of  metre, 
Labitur  et  labetur"  — 

could  not  but  say  a  good  thing  occasionally.  The 
postscript  to  his  "  Epistle  to  James  Boswell,  Esq.," 
being  a  supposed  conversation  between  Dr.  Johnson 
and  the  author,  contains  a  well-known  sally :  — 

P.P.  "I  have  heard  it  whispered,  Doctor,  that,  should  you  die 
before  him,  Mr.  Boswell  means  to  write  your  life." 

Johnson.  "  Sir,  he  cannot  mean  me  so  irreparable  an  injury. 
Which  of  us  shall  die  first,  is  only  known  to  the  great  Disposer  of 
events ;  but,  were  I  sure  that  James  Boswell  would  write  my  life,  I  do 
not  know  whether  I  would  not  anticipate  the  measure  by  taking  his.'11 

Since  Dryden  we  have  had  no  political  satirist  com- 
parable to  Moore.  In  "  The  Fudge  Family  in  Paris," 
the  letters  of  Mr.  Phelim  Fudge  to  his  employer,  Lord 
Castlereagh,  are  an  ironical  picture  of  European  society 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Holy  Alliance.  "  The 
Parody  on  a  Celebrated  Letter" — that  addressed  by  the 
Prince  Regent  to  the  Duke  of  York  in  1812  —  is  a 
piece  of  cutting  satire,  in  which  every  line  has  its  open 
or  covert  sting. 

Among  the  many  shorter  poems  which  fall  under  the 
description  of  political  satire,  none  has  attained  greater 
notoriety  than  "  Lilliburlero,"  or  better  deserved  it  than 
"  The  Vicar  of  Bray."  The  doggerel  stanzas  of  the 

1  Apologetic  Postscript  to  Ode  upon  Ode. 


PASTORAL  POETRY.  421 

former  were  sung  all  over  England  about  the  time  of 
the  landing  of  William  III.,  and  are  said  to  have  con., 
tributed  much  to  stir  up  the  popular  hatred  against 
James.  "  The  Vicar  of  Bray  "  is  a  witty  narrative  of 
the  changes  in  political  sentiment  which  a  beneficed 
clergyman,  whose  fundamental  principle  it  is  to  stick  to 
his  benefice,  might  be  supposed  to  undergo  between  the 
reigns  of  Charles  II.  and  George  I.  The  first  and  the 
last  stanzas  are  subjoined :  — 

"  In  good  King  Charles's  golden  days, 

When  loyalty  no  harm  meant, 
A  zealous  high-church  man  I  was, 

And  so  I  got  preferment. 
To  teach  my  flock  I  never  missed, 

Kings  are  by  God  appointed, 
And  cursed  are  they  that  do  resist, 
Or  touch  the  Lord's  anointed; 
And  this  is  law,  &c. 


The  illustrious  house  of  Hanover, 

And  Protestant  succession, 
To  them  I  do  allegiance  swear  — 

While  they  can  keep  possession ; 
For  in  my  faith  and  loyalty 

I  never  more  will  falter, 
And  George  my  lawful  king  shall  be  — 
Until  the  times  do  alter ; 

And  this  is  law,  I  will  maintain 

Until  my  dying  day,  sir, 
That,  whatsoever  king  shall  reign, 
I'll  be  the  Vicar  of  Bray,  sir." 

Pastoral  Poetry  ;  Spenser,  Brown,  Pope,  Shenstone. 

Of  the  pastoral  poetry  of  Greece,  such  as  we  have  it 
in  the  exquisite  "  Idyls  "  of  Theocritus,  our  English 
specimens  are  but  a  weak  and  pale  reflection.  The  true 
pastoral  brings  us  to  the  sloping  brow  of  the  hill,  while 
the  goats  are  browsing  below ;  and  on  a  rustic  seat, 
opposite  a  statue  of  Priapus,  we  see  the  herdsmen 

36 


422  HISTOBY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

singing  or  piping,  yet  shunning  to  try  their  skill  in  the 
midday  heats,  because  they  fear  to  anger  Pan,  who 
then  "  rests,  being  a- weary,  from  his  hunting."  l  Even 
Virgil's  "  Eclogues,"  graceful  and  musical  as  they  are, 
possess  but  a  secondary  excellence  :  they  are  merely 
imitations  of  Theocritus,  and  do  not  body  forth  the  real 
rural  life  of  Italy.  The  only  English  poetry  which 
bears  the  true  pastoral  stamp  is  that  of  Burns  and 
other  Scottish  writers,  and  for  this  reason  :  that,  like 
the  Greek  pastoral,  it  is  founded  on  reality  ;  it  springs 
out  of  the  actual  life  and  manner  of  thought  of  the 
Scottish  peasant.  If  it  is  rough-hewn  and  harsh  in 
comparison  with  its  Southern  prototype,  that  is  but 
saying  that  the  Scottish  peasant,  though  not  despicably 
endowed,  is  neither  intellectually  nor  aesthetically  the 
equal  of  the  Greek. 

The  chief  pastoral  poems  that  we  have  are  Spen- 
ser's "  Shepherd's  Kalendar,"  Drayton's  "  Eclogues," 
Browne's  "  Britannia's  Pastorals,"  and  Pope's  and 
Shenstone's  "  Pastorals,"  besides  innumerable  shorter 
pieces.  It  is  scarcely  worth  while  to  make  extracts. 
Browne's  so-called  pastorals  ought  rather  to  be  classed 
as  descriptive  poems,  since  they  are  destitute  of  that 
dramatic  character  which  the  true  pastoral  (which  is, 
in  fact,  a  rudimentary  drama)  should  always  possess. 

"  Britannia's  Pastorals  "  are  in  two  books,  each  containing  five 
"  songs  "  or  cantos.  A  thread  of  narrative  runs  through  them,  but  does 
not  furnish  much  that  is  interesting,  either  in  character  or  in  incident. 
The  conduct  of  the  story  of  Marina  and  her  lovers  is  far  too  discursive. 
Each  song  is  introduced  by  an  "argument,"  as  in  the  "  Faerie  Queen ;" 
and  the  coloring  of  the  whole  work  is  strongly  Spenserian.  But  the 
digressions  and  intercalated  discussions  on  all  sorts  of  matters,  chiefly 
however,  amatory,  make  it  very  tedious  reading.  A  true  feeling  for 
natural  beauty,  a  special  love  for  the  scenery  of  his  native  Devon,  and 
a  corresponding  power  of  rich  and  picturesque  description,  are 
Browne's  chief  merits. 

1  Theocritus,  Idyl  I. 


DESCRIPTIVE  POETRY.  423 

Pope,  in  the  introduction  to  his  "  Pastorals,"  explained 
his  conception  of  a  pastoral  poem,  as  of  an  ideal  picture 
of  the  simplicity  and  virtue,  the  artless  manners,  fresh 
affections,  and  natural  language  of  the  golden  age,  apart 
alike  from  oourtly  refinements  and  realistic  coarseness. 
In  executing  this  conception  he  is  very  happy,  espe- 
cially in  the  third  and  fourth  pastorals.  Shenstone's 
"  Pastoral  Ballad  "  has  some  delicately  turned  phrases ; 
we  subjoin  a  stanza  or  two :  — 

"  When  forced  the  fair  nymph  to  forego, 

What  anguish  I  felt  at  my  heart ! 
Yet  I  thought  —  but  it  might  not  be  so  — 

'Twas  with  pain  that  she  saw  me  depart. 
She  gazed,  as  I  slowly  withdrew , 

My  path  I  could  hardly  discern ; 
So  sweetly  she  bade  me  adieu, 

I  thought  that  she  bade  me  return." 

The  nymph  proves  faithless  ;  and  "  disappointment " 
is  the  burden  of  the  concluding  part  or  canto  of  the 
poem :  — 

"  Alas !  from  the  day  that  we  met, 

What  hope  of  an  end  to  my  woes  ? 
When  I  cannot  endure  to  forget 

The  glance  that  undid  my  repose. 
Yet  time  may  diminish  the  pain : 

The  flower,  and  the  shrub,  and  the  tree, 
Which  I  reared  for  her  pleasure  in  vain, 

In  time  may  have  comfort  for  me." 

Descriptive  Poetry:  "  Polyolbion,"   "Cooper's  Hill,"  "The 
Seasons." 

This  kind  of  poetry  labors  under  the  want  of  definite 
form  and  scope :  it  is  accumulative,  not  organic  ;  and 
consequently  is  avoided,  or  but  seldom  used,  by  the 
greater  masters  of  the  art.  The  most  bulky  specimen 
of  descriptive  verse  that  we  possess  is  Dray  ton's  "  Poly- 
olbion ;  "  the  most  celebrated,  Thomson's  "  Seasons." 


424  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

The  "  Polyolbion "  is  a  sort  of  British  gazetteer  -9  it 
describes  the  most  noted  spots  or  towns  in  every  English 
county,  with  historical  illustrations.  The  poem  shows 
great  imaginative  as  well  as  descriptive  power ;  so  that 
one  wonders  at  the  patient  industry  with  which  a  man 
whose  gifts  qualified  him  for  higher  things  must  have 
worked  out  his  dull  task.  The  diction  is  simple  and 
strong,  and  tends  to  the  Saxon  side  of  the  language,  as 
the  following  extract  shows  :  — 

"  Of  Albion's  glorious  isle,  the  wonders  whilst  I  write, 
The  sundry  varying  soils,  the  pleasures  infinite, 
Where  heat  kills  not  the  cold,  nor  cold  expels  the  heat, 
The  calms  too  mildly  small,  nor  winds  too  roughly  great. 
Nor  night  doth  hinder  day,  nor  day  the  night  doth  wrong, 
The  summer  not  too  short,  the  winter  not  too  long,  — 
What  help  shall  I  invoke  to  aid  my  Muse  the  while  ? 
Thou  genius  of  the  place !  this  most  renowned  isle, 
Which  livedst  long  before  the  all-earth-drowning  flood, 
Whilst  yet  the  earth  did  swarm  with  her  gigantic  brood, 
Go  thou  before  me  still,  thy  circling  shores  about, 
Direct  my  course  so  right,  as  with  thy  hand  to  show 
Which  way  thy  forests  range,  which  way  thy  rivers  flow, 
Wise  genius,  by  thy  help  that  so  I  may  descry 
How  thy  fair  mountains  stand,  and  how  thy  valleys  lie. 

"Cooper's  Hill,"  by  Sir  John  Denham,  has  the 
beautiful  and  often-quoted  passage  descriptive  of  the 
Thames :  — 

"  Thames  —  the  most  loved  of  all  the  Ocean's  sons 
By  his  old  sire  —  to  his  embraces  runs, 
Hasting  to  pay  his  tribute  to  the  sea, 
Like  mortal  life  to  meet  eternity. 
Though  with  those  streams  he  no  resemblance  hold, 
Whose  foam  is  amber,  and  their  gravel  gold, 
His  genius  and  less  guilty  wealth  to  explore, 
Search  not  his  bottom,  but  survey  his  shore, 
O'er  which  he  kindly  spreads  his  spacious  wing, 
And  hatches  plenty  for  the  ensuing  spring ; 
Nor  then  destroys  it  with  too  fond  a  stay, 
Like  mothers  which  their  infants  overlay, 


DESCEIPTIVE  POETRY.  425 

Nor  with  a  sudden  and  impetuous  wave, 

Like  profuse  kings,  resumes  the  wealth  he  gave ; 

No  unexpected  inundations  spoil 

The  mower's  hopes,  nor  mock  the  ploughman's  toil; 

But  godlike  his  unwearied  bounty  flows ; 

First  loves  to  do,  then  loves  the  good  he  does ; 

Nor  are  his  blessings  to  his  banks  confined, 

But  free  and  common  as  the  sea,  or  wind, 

When  he,  to  boast  or  to  disperse  his  stores, 

Full  of  the  tributes  of  his  grateful  shores, 

Visits  the  world,  and,  in  his  flying  towers, 

Brings  home  to  us,  and  makes  both  Indies  ours ; 

Finds  wealth  where  'tis,  bestows  it  where  it  wants; 

Cities  in  deserts,  woods  in  cities,  plants ; 

So  that  to  us  no  thing,  no  place,  is  strange, 

While  his  fair  bosom  is  the  world's  exchange. 

Oh  might  I  flow  like  thee,  and  make  thy  stream 

My  great  example,  as  it  is  my  theme !  — 

Though  deep  yet  clear,  though  gentle  yet  not  dull, 

Strong  without  rage,  without  o'erflowing  full." 

Of  Pope's  "  Windsor  Forest,"  Johnson  has  remarked, 
"  The  design  of  l  Windsor  Forest '  is  evidently  taken 
from  l  Cooper's  Hill,'  with  some  attention  to  Waller's 
poem  on  4  The  Park.'  .  .  .  The  objection  made  by 
Dennis  is  the  want  of  plan,  or  a  regular  subordination 
of  parts  terminating  in  the  principal  and  original  design. 
There  is  this  want  in  most  descriptive  poems  ;  because, 
as  the  scenes  which  they  must  exhibit  successively  are 
all  subsisting  at  the  same  time,  the  order  in  which  they 
are  shown  must  by  necessity  be  arbitrary,  and  more  is 
not  to  be  expected  from  the  last  part  than  the  first." 

Thomson's  "  Seasons,"  a  poem  in  blank  verse,  in  four 
books,  bears  some  resemblance,  though  no  comparison, 
to  Virgil's  "  Georgics."  The  descriptions  of  the  appear- 
ances of  nature,  the  habits  of  animals,  and  the  manners 
of  men,  are  generally  given  with  truthful  and  vivid 
delineation.  The  more  ambitious  flights  (if  a  fine 
panegyric  on  Peter  the  Great  be  excepted)  —  in  which 
he  paints  great  characters  of  ancient  or  modern  story, 

3f>* 


426  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

or  philosophizes,  or  plays  the  moralist  —  are  less  success- 
ful. Even  in  describing  nature,  Thomson  betrays  a 
signal  want  of  imagination ;  he  saw  correctly  what  was 
before  him,  the  outward  shows  of  things,  but  never  had 
a  glimpse  of — 

"  The  light  that  never  was  on  sea  or  land, 
The  inspiration,  and  the  poet's  dream." 

There  are  passages  from  which  the  author  might  be 
set  down  as  a  pantheist ;  but  poets  are  often  inconsis- 
tent ;  and,  as  Pope  disclaimed  the  fatalism  which  seems 
to  be  taught  by  the  "  Essay  on  Man,"  so  Thomson 
might  have  declined  to  father  the  pantheism  which 
seems  to  pervade  the  following  lines,  if  expressed  in 
sober  prose :  — 

"  What  is  this  mighty  breath,  ye  sages,  say, 
That  in  a  powerful  language,  felt,  not  heard, 
Instructs  the  fowls  of  heaven,  and  through  their  breast 
These  arts  of  love  diffuses?  —  what  but  God? 
Inspiring  God !  who,  boundless  Spirit  all, 
And  unremitting  energy,  pervades, 
Adjusts,  sustains,  and  agitates  the  whole." 

A  passage  at  the  end  of  "  Spring  "  contains  a  well-known 
line :  — 

"  Delightful  task !  to  rear  the  tender  thought, 
To  teach  the  young  idea  how  to  shoot, 
To  pour  the  fresh  instruction  o'er  the  mind, 
To  breathe  the  enlivening  spirit,  and  to  fix 
The  generous  purpose  in  the  glowing  breast." 

The  lines  on  the  robin,  in  "  Winter,"  are  in  Thomson's 
best  manner :  — 

"  The  fowls  of  heaven, 
Tamed  by  the  cruel  season,  crowd  around 
The  winnowing  store,  and  claim  the  little  boon 
Which  Providence  assigns  them.    One  alone, 
The  redbreast,  sacred  to  the  household  gods, 


LYRICAL   POETRY.  427 

Wisely  regardful  of  the  embroiling  sky, 
In  joyless  fields  and  thorny  thickets  leaves 
His  shivering  mates,  and  pays  to  trusted  man 
His  annual  visit.     Half  afraid,  he  first 
Against  the  window  beats ;  then,  brisk,  alights 
On  the  warm  hearth ;  then,  hopping  o'er  the  floor, 
Eyes  all  the  smiling  family  askance, 
And  pecks,  and  starts,  and  wonders  where  he  is ; 
Till,  more  familiar  grown,  the  table-crumbs 
Attract  his  slender  feet." 

Lyrical  Poetry :    Devotional,  Loyal,  Patriotic,  Amatory, 
Bacchanalian,    Martial. 

Lyrical  poetry,  as  its  name  denotes,  implied  originally 
that  the  words  were  accompanied  by  lively  music.  A 
rapid  movement,  and  a  corresponding  rapidity  in  the 
verse,  are  essential  to  it.  It  is  the  glowing  utterance  of 
minds,  not  calm  and  thoughtful,  but  excited  and  impas- 
sioned ;  it  appertains,  therefore,  to  the  affective  and 
emotional  side  of  human  nature,  and  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  reasoning  and  meditative  side.  Wordsworth, 
in  pursuance  of  a  poetical  theory,  published  in  his 
youth  a  collection  of  "  Lyrical  Ballads  ; "  but  they  were 
not  lyrical,  because  there  was  no  passion  in  them,  and 
much  reflection.  In  later  life,  he  wisely  changed  their 
designation. 

There  are  certain  main  lyrical  themes,  corresponding 
to  the  passions  and  emotions  which  exercise  the  most 
agitating  sway  over  the  human  heart.  These  are,  devo- 
tion, loyalty,  patriotism,  love,  war,  and  revelry.  We 
will  take  each  theme  separately,  and,  from  among  the 
innumerable  lyrical  compositions  which  adorn  our  litera- 
ture, select  a  very  few  as  a  sample  of  the  riches  of  the 
land.  The  task  of  selection  is  much  facilitated  by  the 
recent  publication  of  a  book  called  "  The  Golden  Treas- 
ury," being  a  collection  of  the  best  songs  and  lyrics  in 
the  language,  admirably  edited  by  Mr.  Palgrave. 


428  HISTOBY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

1.  Among  devotional  lyrics  there  is  none  nobler  than 
Milton's  "  Christmas  Ode."  Hallam  pronounced  it  to  be 
"  perhaps  the  finest  ode  in  the  English  language."  A 
certain  ruggedness  of  diction  partially  disfigures  the 
later  stanzas ;  but,  taking  the  poem  as  a  whole,  the 
music  of  the  numbers  is  worthy  of  the  stately  yet  swift 
march  of  the  thought.  We  must  find  space  for  the 
opening  and  concluding  stanzas :  — 

"  It  was  the  winter  wild, 

While  the  heaven-born  child 
All  meanly  wrapt  in  the  rude  manger  lies ; 
Nature  in  awe  to  him 
Had  doffed  her  gaudy  trim, 
With  her  great  Master  so  to  sympathize : 

It  was  no  season  then  for  her 
To  wanton  with  the  sun,  her  lusty  paramour. 

Only  with  speeches  fair 

She  wooes  the  gentle  air 
To  hide  her  guilty  front  with  innocent  snow; 

And  on  her  naked  shame, 

Pollute  with  sinful  blame, 
The  saintly  veil  of  maiden  white  to  throw; 

Confounded  that  her  Maker's  eyes 
Should  look  so  near  upon  her  foul  deformities. 

But  He,  her  fears  to  cease, 

Sent  down  the  meek-eyed  Peace ; 
She,  crowned  with  olive-green,  came  softly  sliding 

Down  through  the  turning  sphere, 

His  ready  harbinger, 
With  turtle  wing  the  amorous  clouds  dividing; 

And,  waving  wide  her  myrtle  wand, 
She  strikes  an  universal  peace  through  sea  and  land. 

No  war  or  battle  sound 

Was  heard  the  world  around ; 
The  idle  spear  and  shield  were  high  uphung ; 

The  hooked  chariot  stood 

Unstained  with  hostile  blood ; 
The  trumpet  spake  not  to  the  armed  throng ; 

And  kings  sat  still  with  awful  eye, 
As  if  they  surely  knew  their  sovereign  Lord  was  by." 


LYRICAL  POETRY.  429 

The  discomfiture  and  flight  of  the  heathen  divinities 
upon  the  advent  of  the  Redeemer,  and  the  silence  of  the 
oracles,  are  then  described ;  and  the  ode  concludes  with 
the  following  stanzas :  — 

"  So  when  the  sun  in  bed, 

Curtained  with  cloudy  red, 
Pillows  his  chin  upon  an  orient  wave, 
The  flocking  shadows  pale 
Troop  to  the  infernal  jail, 
Each  fettered  ghost  slips  to  his  several  grave ; 

And  the  yellow-skirted  fays 
Fly  after  the  night- steeds,  leaving  their  moon-loved  maze. 

But  see,  the  Virgin  blest 

Hath  laid  her  babe  to  rest : 
Time  is,  our  tedious  song  should  here  have  ending: 

Heaven's  youngest-teemed  star 

Hath  fixed  her  polished  car, 
Her  sleeping  Lord  with  handmaid  lamp  attending ; 

And  all  about  the  courtly  stable 
Bright  harnessed  angels  sit,  in  orders  serviceable." 

Crashaw's  lyrics  of  devotion  are  often  beautiful, 
though  their  effect  is  injured  by  the  conceits  in  which 
he,  as  a  writer  of  the  fantastic  school,  was  wont  to 
indulge.  Dry  den  is  the  author  of  a  fine  paraphrase  of 
the  hymn,  "  Veni  Creator  Spiritus."  Pope's  "  Messiah  " 
is  a  lyrical  eclogue  in  imitation  of  the  fourth  eclogue  of 
Virgil ;  but  it  is  not  to  be  compared  in  merit  to  the 
noble  and  almost  inspired  address  to  Pollio.  In  his 
hymn  entitled  "  The  Dying  Christian  to  his  Soul,"  Pope 
essayed  to  rival  Dryden  and  Addison  in  this  field  also. 
The  effort  cannot  be  pronounced  unsuccessful ;  yet  the 
art  and  labor  are  too  transparent,  and  the  ejaculations 
have  a  slightly  theatrical  cast :  — 

"  Vital  spark  of  heavenly  flame, 
Quit,  oh !  quit  this  mortal  frame ; 
Trembling,  hoping,  lingering,  flying, 
Oh  the  pain,  the  bliss,  of  dying  I 


430  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Cease,  fond  Nature,  cease  thy  strife, 
And  let  me  languish  into  life. 

The  world  recedes,  it  disappears ; 
Heaven  opens  on  my  eyes ;  my  ears 

With  sounds  seraphic  ring ; 
Lend,  lend  your  wings !  I  mount,  I  fly ; 
O  Grave,  where  is  thy  victory  ? 

O  Death,  where  is  thy  sting?" 

In  the  present  century  Byron  and  Moore  have  each 
tried  their  hand  at  sacred  lyrics.  The  "  Hebrew  Melo- 
dies "  of  the  former,  and  the  "  Sacred  Melodies "  of 
the  latter,  contain  pieces  of  great  lyrical  beauty.  In 
the  art  of  wedding  words  to  sounds,  no  English  poet 
ever  excelled  or  perhaps  equalled  Moore.  The  gift  is 
exhibited  in  the  following  sacred  melody,  which  is  but  a 
sample  of  a  great  number  all  equally  felicitous  in  this 
respect : — 

"  Sound  the  loud  timbrel  o'er  Egypt's  dark  sea: 
Jehovah  hath  triumphed ;  his  people  are  free. 
Sing ;  for  the  might  of  the  tyrant  is  broken ; 

His  chariots,  his  horsemen,  so  splendid  and  brave, 
How  vain  was  their  boasting !  the  Lord  hath  but  spoken, 

And  chariots  and  horsemen  are  sunk  in  the  wave. 

Praise  to  the  conqueror,  praise  to  the  Lord  1 

His  word  was  our  arrow,  his  breath  was  our  sword : 

Who  shall  return  to  tell  Egypt  the  story 

Of  those  she  sent  forth  in  the  hour  of  her  pride  ? 
The  Lord  but  looked  forth  from  his  pillar  of  glory, 

And  all  her  brave  thousands  are  whelmed  in  the  tide." 

2.  Of  the  loyal  songs  with  which  our  poetry  abounds, 
certain  classes  only  can  be  said  to  possess  real  excel- 
lence. When  it  is  on  the  winning  side,  loyalty  loses  its 
passion  and  its  pathos ;  its  effusions  tend  to  become 
interested,  and  lie  under  the  suspicion  of  servility.  It 
is  for  this  reason  that  such  poems  as  Dryden's  "  Astrsea 
Redux,"  and  Addison's  heroics  in  honor  of  William  III., 


LYRICAL  POETRY.  431 

fall  flat  and  cold  on  the  ear.  But  when  loyalty  is  strug- 
gling, or  when  it  is  persecuted,  it  is  a  noble  because  a 
disinterested  sentiment,  and  it  gives  birth  to  noble 
poems.  In  our  own  history  these  conditions  have  been 
present  on  two  occasions,  —  during  the  civil  war,  and 
after  the  revolution  of  1688.  The  royalist  and  the 
Jacobite  songs  are  therefore  the  only  loyal  lyrics  which 
need  arrest  our  attention.  Of  the  former  class  we  shall 
quote  a  portion  of  the  well-known  lines  composed  by 
the  gallant  Lovelace  while  in  prison :  — 

"  When  Love  with  uncon fined  wings 

Hovers  within  my  gates, 
And  my  divine  Althea  brings 

To  whisper  at  the  grates ; 
When  I  lie  tangled  in  her  hair, 

And  fettered  to  her  eye, 
The  hirds  that  wanton  in  the  air 

Know  no  such  liberty. 

"  When,  linnet-like  confined,  I 

With  shriller  throat  shall  sing 
The  sweetness,  mercy,  majesty, 

And  glories  of  my  king, 
When  I  shall  voice  aloud  how  good 

He  is,  how  great  should  be, 
Enlarged  winds,  that  curl  the  flood, 

Know  no  such  liberty. 

"  Stone  walls  do  not  a  prison  make, 

Nor  iron  bars  a  cage ; 
Minds  innocent  and  quiet  take 

These  for  an  hermitage ; 
If  I  have  freedom  in  my  love, 

And  in  my  soul  am  free, 
Angels  alone,  that  soar  above, 

Enjoy  such  liberty." 

The  Jacobite  songs,  which  are  mostly  of  unknown 
authorship,  are  full  of  spirit  and  fire,  and  possess  that 
melancholy  charm  which  belongs  to  a  great  cause  vainly 


432  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITER  AT  URE. 

maintained  by  high-souled  men  against  an  overpowering 
destiny.     We  select  the  following  specimen : l  — 

"  To  daunton  me,  an'  me  sae  young, 
An'  gude  King  James's  auldest  son! 
Oh,  that's  the  thing  that  ne'er  can  be, 
For  the  man's  unborn  that  will  daunton  me! 

"  Oh,  set  me  ance  on  Scottish  land, 
An'  gie  me  my  braid-sword  in  my  hand, 
Wi'  my  blue  bonnet  aboon  my  bree, 
An'  show  me  the  man  that  will  daunton  me ! 

"  It's  nae  the  battle's  deadly  stoure, 
Nor  friends  pruived  fause,  that'll  gar  me  cower; 
But  the  reckless  hand  o'  povertie, 
Oh !  that  alane  can  daunton  me. 

"  High  was  I  born  to  kingly  gear, 
But  a  cuif  2  came  in  my  cap  to  wear; 
But  wi'  my  braid-sword  I'll  let  him  see 
He's  nae  the  man  will  daunton  me." 

The  best  and  most  spirited  of  these  Jacobite  lyrics 
are  to  be  found  in  Ritson's  "Collection  of  Scottish 
Songs,"  or  Hogg's  "  Jacobite  Relics." 

3.  That  amour  sacr£  de  la  patrie  which  in  all  countries 
is  a  fruitful  theme  for  the  lyric  Muse  is  among  ourselves 
by  no  means  homogeneous.  We  have  Scotch  patriotism, 
Irish  patriotism,  and  British  or  imperial  patriotism,  and 
noble  lyrics  inspired  by  each.  Lastly,  as  there  is  a  poeti- 
cal justice,  so  there  is  a  poetical  patriotism, —  a  feeling 
which  usually  goes  abroad  to  seek  for  its  objects,  and 
is  eloquent  upon  the  wrongs  sustained  by  foreign  nation- 
alities. Scotland  vents  her  patriotic  fervor  in  Burns's 
manly  lines,  supposed  to  be  addressed  by  Bruce  to  his 
army  before  the  battle  of  Bannockburn.  Her  poets 
find  her  ancient  triumphs  over  England  more  soul-inspir- 
ing than  any  of  those  which  her  sons  have,  since  the 

1  From  Cromek's  Songs  of  Nithsdale.       2  Worthless  fellow. 


LYRICAL  POETKY.  433 

Union,  assisted  her  great  neighbor  to  achieve.  For 
patriotism  is  intense  in  proportion  to  its  local  concentra- 
tion ;  and  zeal  for  the  preservation  of  the  integrity  of  a 
great  empire,  though  it  may  produce  the  same  course  of 
action,  is  an  affair  of  the  reason  rather  than  of  the  feel- 
ings, and  therefore  less  likely  to  give  rise  to  lyrical 
developments.  Two  stanzas  from  the  song  above  men- 
tioned are  subjoined :  — 

"  Wha  wad  be  a  traitor  knave, 
Wha  wad  fill  a  coward's  grave, 
Wha  sae  base  as  be  a  slave  ? 
Coward !  turn  and  flee ! 

Wha  for  Scotland's  king  and  law 
Freedom's  sword  will  strongly  draw, 
Freeman  stand,  or  freeman  fa'  ? 
Let  him  follow  me! 5>1 

1  In  the  first  edition,  I  printed  the  last  line  of  this  stanza,  "  Scots- 
man, on  wi'  me ! "  but  otherwise  it  stood  precisely  as  it  now  stands.  A 
writer  in  "The  Museum"  charged  me  with  having  misquoted  this 
stanza  "  so  egregiously,  as  to  have  produced  ludicrous  nonsense." 
According  to  him,  "  by  making  the"  first  three  lines  interrogative,  it  is 
implied  that  no  one  is  prepared  to  draw  freedom's  sword."  Jehu 
asked,  "Who  is  on  the  Lord's  side,  who?"  when  he  wished  to  have 
Jezebel  thrown  out  of  the  window ;  he  expected,  therefore,  to  find  that 
no  one  was  on  the  Lord's  side,  if  this  new  grammatical  canon  be  cor- 
rect. In  other  respects,  too,  the  criticism  is  unlucky.  Referring  to 
Allan  Cunningham's  edition  of  the  poet's  works,  I  find  that  Burns 
originally  wrote  (see  his  letter  to  G-.  Thomson,  dated  in  September, 
1793),— 

"  Freeman  stand,  or  freeman  fa'  ? 
Let  him  follow  me !  " 

The  "  ludicrous  nonsense,"  therefore,  produced  by  the  mark  of  inter- 
rogation, must  be  fathered  on  the  poet  himself.  This  first  and  clearly 
best  version  was  adapted  to  the  air,  "  Hey,  tuttie,  taitie."  Thomson 
wrote  back,  delighted  with  the  words,  but  objecting  to  the  air  which 
they  were  set  to,  and  suggesting  such  alterations  in  the  terminal  lines 
of  the  stanzas  as  would  adapt  the  song  to  the  air  "Lewie  Gordon." 
Burns  accepted  the  suggestion,  and,  in  his  next  letter,  gave  an  altered 
37 


434  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Sir  Walter  Scott  was  by  reason  and  principle  a  stanch 
imperialist ;  and  his  poem  on  Waterloo  illustrates  th& 
general  or  British  element  in  his  patriotism.  But  how 
cold  and  tame  it  reads  compared  with  the  glowing  lines 
which  burst  from  his  lips,  as  his  heart  broods  over  the 
rugged  charms  of  his  own  Caledonia  ! 

"  Breathes  there  the  man,  with  soul  so  dead, 
Who  never  to  himself  hath  said, 

This  is  my  own,  my  native  land? 
Whose  heart  hath  ne'er  within  him  burned, 
As  home  his  footsteps  he  hath  turned, 

From  wandering  on  a  foreign  strand  ? 
If  such  there  be,  go  mark  him  well ; 
For  him  no  minstrel  raptures  swell : 
High  though  his  titles,  proud  his  name, 
Boundless  his  wealth  as  wish  can  claim,  — 
Despite  those  titles,  power,  and  pelf, 
The  wretch  concentred  all  in  self, 
Living,  shall  forfeit  fair  renown, 
And,  doubly  dying,  shall  go  down 
To  the  vile  dust  from  whence  he  sprung, 
Unwept,  unhonored,  and  unsung. 
O  Caledonia !  stern  and  wild, 
Meet  nurse  for  a  poetic  child ! 
Land  of  brown  heath  and  shaggy  wood, 
Land  of  the  mountain  and  the  flood, 
Land  of  my  sires !  what  mortal  hand 
Can  e'er  untie  the  filial  band 
That  knits  me  to  thy  rugged  strand  ? 

version,  in  which,  whether  by  accident  or  design,  a  comma  was  sub- 
stituted for  the  mark  of  interrogation,  so  that  the  stanzas  read,  — 

"  Freeman  stand,  or  freeman  fa', 
Caledonian !  on  wi'  me." 

Alexander  Smith,  in  his  late  edition  of  Burns,  retains  the  mark  of 
interrogation,  but  prints  the  terminal  lines  as  they  stand  in  the  second 
version.  I  decidedly  think  that  the  first  version,  representing  the 
original  form  of  this  noble  theme  as  it  flowed  fresh  and  warm  from 
Robert  Burns' s  heart,  should  be  strictly  adhered  to  in  all  future 
editions. 


LYRICAL  POETRY.  435 

Still  as  I  view  each  well-known  scene, 

Think  what  is  now,  and  what  hath  been, 

Seems  as  to  me,  of  all  bereft, 

Sole  friends  thy  woods  and  streams  were  left ; 

And  thus  I  love  them  better  still, 

Even  in  extremity  of  ill. 

By  Yarrow's  streams  still  let  me  stray, 

Though  none  shall  guide  my  feeble  way ; 

Still  feel  the  breeze  down  Ettrick  break, 

Although  it  chill  my  withered  cheek ; 

Still  lay  my  head  by  Teviot  stone, 

Though  there,  forgotten  and  alone, 

The  bard  may  draw  his  parting  groan." 

Irish  patriotism  blooms,  as  might  be  expected,  into 
verse  of  a  mournful,  almost  of  an  elegiac,  cast.  Moore's 
poetry  furnishes  us  with  many  beautiful  specimens, 
among  which  the  following  lines,  entitled  "  After  the 
Battle,"  are  not  the  least  beautiful :  — 

"Night  closed  upon  the  conqueror's  way, 

And  lightnings  showed  the  distant  hill, 
Where  they  who  lost  that  dreadful  day 

Stood  few  and  faint,  but  fearless  still. 
The  soldier's  hope,  the  patriot's  zeal, 

Forever  dimmed,  forever  crossed ; 
Oh !  who  can  tell  what  heroes  feel, 

When  all  but  life  and  honor's  lost? 

The  last  sad  hour  of  freedom's  dream, 

And  valor's  task,  moved  slowly  by, 
While  mute  they  watched,  till  morning's  beam 

Should  rise,  and  give  them  light  to  die ! 
There  is  a  world  where  souls  are  free, 

Where  tyrants  taint  not  nature's  bliss : 
If  death  that  world's  bright  opening  be, 

Oh !  who  would  live  a  slave  in  this  ?  " 

British  —  if  it  should  not  rather  be  called  English  — 
patriotism  has  produced  such  poems  as  Glover's 
"  Hosier's  Ghost,"  Cowper's  "  Boadicea,"  and  Camp- 
bell's "  Mariners  of  England,"  From  the  "  Boadicea  " 


436  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

we  extract  a  portion  of  the  Druid's   address  to  the 
patriot  queen  of  the  Iceni :  — 

"  Rome,  for  empire  far  renowned, 

Tramples  on  a  thousand  states ; 
Soon  her  pride  shall  kiss  the  ground : 
Hark !  the  Gaul  is  at  her  gates. 

Other  Romans  shall  arise, 

Heedless  of  a  soldier's  name ; 
Sounds,  not  arms,  shall  win  the  prize, 

Harmony  the  path  to  fame. 

Then  the  progeny  that  springs 

From  the  forests  of  our  land, 
Armed  with  thunder,  clad  with  wings, 

Shall  a  wider  world  command. 

Regions  Caesar  never  knew 

Thy  posterity  shall  sway : 
Where  his  eagles  never  flew, 

None  invincible  as  they." 

Poetical  patriotism  inspired  Gray's  "  Bard,"  Byron's 
44  Isles  of  Greece,"  and  Shelley's  "  Hellas."  In  the 
first-named  poem,  the  last  of  the  Welsh  bards,  stand- 
ing on  a  crag  that  overhangs  the  pass  through  which 
King  Edward  and  his  army  are  defiling,  invokes  ruin 
on  the  race  and  name  of  the  oppressor  of  his  country, 
and,  at  the  conclusion  of  his  hymn  of  vengeful  despair, 
flings  himself  into  the  sea.  Byron's  noble  lyric  is  so 
well  known  that  we  shall  not  spoil  it  by  quotation, 
but  prefer  to  extract  portions  of  two  choruses  from 
Shelley's  "  Hellas,"  in  which,  with  the  enthusiasm  of 
genius,  the  poet  paints  an  ideal  future  for  enfranchised 
and  regenerate  Greece :  — 

"  Temples  and  towers, 
Citadels  and  marts,  and  they 
Who  live  and  die  there,  have  been  ours, 
And  may  be  thine,  and  must  decay ; 


LYRICAL  POETRY.  437 

But  Greece  and  her  foundations  are 
Built  below  the  tide  of  war, 
Based  on  the  crystalline  sea 
Of  thought,  and  its  eternity ; 
Her  citizens,  imperial  spirits, 

Rule  the  present  from  the  past; 
On  all  this  world  of  men  inherits 

Their  seal  is  set." 

But  this  is  not  enough;  Greece  herself  is  to  live 
again :  — 

"  A  brighter  Hellas  rears  its  mountains 

From  waves  serener  far ; 
A  new  Peneus  rolls  its  fountains 

Against  the  morning  star; 
Where  fairer  Tempes  bloom,  there  sleep 
Young  Cyclads  on  a  sunnier  deep. 

A  loftier  Argo  cleaves  the  main, 

Fraught  with  a  later  prize ; 
Another  Orpheus  sings  again, 

And  loves,  and  weeps,  and  dies ; 
A  new  Ulysses  leaves  once  more 
Calypso  for  his  native  shore. 

Oh,  write  no  more  the  tale  of  Troy, 

If  earth  Death's  scroll  must  be! 
Nor  mix  with  Laian  rage  the  joy 

Which  dawns  upon  the  free ; 
Although  a  subtler  Sphynx  renew 
Riddles  of  death  Thebes  never  knew. 

Another  Athens  shall  arise, 

And,  to  remoter  time, 
Bequeath,  like  sunset  to  the  skies, 

The  splendor  of  her  prime ; 
And  leave,  if  nought  so  bright  may  live, 
All  earth  can  take,  or  heaven  can  give." 

4.  Love  songs,  or  amatory  lyrics,  may  be  counted  by 
hundreds  in  all  our  poetical  collections.  Those  of  Sur- 
rey, having  been  written  under  the  influence  of  Pe- 
trarch, have  a  classic  sound,  but  are  somewhat  monoto- 

37« 


438  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

nous.     The  following  sonnet  is  a  specimen  much  above 
the  average :  — 

"  Set  me  whereas  the  sun  doth  parch  the  green, 

Or  where  his  beams  do  not  dissolve  the  ice ; 
In  temperate  heat,  where  he  is  felt  and  seen ; 

In  presence  prest  of  people,  mad  or  wise; 
Set  me  in  high,  or  yet  in  low  degree ; 

In  longest  night,  or  in  the  longest  day ; 
In  clearest  sky,  or  where  clouds  thickest  be ; 

In  lusty  youth,  or  when  my  hairs  are  gray; 
Set  me  in  heaven,  or  earth,  or  else  in  hell, 

In  hill,  or  dale,  or  in  the  foaming  flood ; 
Thrall,  or  at  large,  —  alive  whereso  I  dwell, 

Sick,  or  in  health,  in  evil  fame  or  good,  — 
Hers  will  I  be ;  and  only  with  this  thought 
Content  myself,  although  my  chance  be  nought." 

Sir  Thomas  Wyat  is  the  author  of  the  following  ele- 
gant stanzas,  which  have  the  heading,  "  The  Lover's 
Lute  cannot  be  blamed  though  it  sing  of  his  Lady's 
Unkindness  :  "  — 

"  Blame  not  my  lute !  for  he  must  sound 

Of  this  or  that,  as  liketh  me ; 
For  lack  of  wit  the  lute  is  bound 

To  give  such  tunes  as  pleaseth  me ; 
Though  my  songs  be  somewhat  strange, 
And  speak  such  words  as  touch  thy  change, 
Blame  not  my  lute ! 


Spite  asketh  spite,  and  changing  change, 
And  falsed  faith  must  needs  be  known ; 

The  fault's  so  great,  the  case  so  strange, 
Of  right  it  must  abroad  be  blown : 

Then,  since  that  by  thine  own  desert 

My  songs  do  tell  how  true  thou  art, 
Blame  not  my  lute ! 

Blame  but  thyself  that  hast  misdone, 
And  well  deserved  to  have  blame ; 

Change  thou  thy  way,  so  evil  begone, 
And  then  my  lute  shall  sound  that  same ; 

But,  if  till  then  my  fingers  play 

By  thy  desert  their  wonted  way, 


LYRICAL  POETEY.  439 

But,  with  the  earlier  poets  in  general,  Venus  is  gen- 
erally found  in  close  alliance  with  Bacchus ;  and  the 
sentiment  which  inspires  their  strains  is  of  a  grosser 
kind  than  that  which  the  refining  mystical  poets  of 
later  times  have  introduced.  Moore  in  this  respect 
resembles  the  poets  of  the  Elizabethan  and  Stuart 
periods  rather  than  his  own  contemporaries.  We  shall 
give  one  or  two  specimens  of  both  styles,  beginning 
with  Ben  Jonson's  graceful  lines  "  To  Celia :  "  — 

"  Drink  to  me  only  with  thine  eyes, 

And  I  will  pledge  with  mine ; 
Or  leave  a  kiss  but  in  the  cup, 

And  I'll  not  ask  for  wine. 
The  thirst  that  from  the  soul  doth  rise 

Doth  ask  a  drink  divine ; 
But,  might  I  of  Jove's  nectar  sup, 

I  would  not  change  for  thine. 

I  sent  thee  late  a  rosy  wreath, 

Not  so  much  honoring  thee 
As  giving  it  a  hope  that  there 

It  could  not  withered  be. 
But  thou  thereon  didst  only  breathe, 

And  sent'st  it  back  to  me ; 
Since  when  it  grows,  and  smells,  I  swear, 

Not  of  itself,  but  thee ! " 

Some  of  Shakspeare's  sonnets  might  well  be  quoted 
in  this  connection,  particularly  that  beginning,  "  Did 
not  the  heavenly  rhetoric  of  thine  eye  ?  "  The  exqui- 
site lines  which  follow  occur  in  "  Measure  for  Meas- 
ure : "  — 

"  Take,  oh,  take  those  lips  away, 

That  so  sweetly  were  foresworn, 
And  those  eyes,  the  break  of  day, 

Lights  that  do  mislead  the  morn ; 
But  my  kisses  bring  again, 

Bring  again,  — 

Seals  of  love,  but  sealed  in  vain, 
Sealed  in  vain  I" 


440  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

Marlowe's  "  Come,  live  with  me,  and  be  my  Love," 
and  Raleigh's  reply,  "  If  all  the  World  and  Love  were 
young,"  are  beautiful  specimens  of  what  may  be  called 
the  pastoral  love  song.  Waller's  "  Go,  lovely  Rose," 
and  Carew's  "  He  that  loves  a  Rosy  Cheek,"  are  in  all 
books  of  extracts ;  but  the  latter  poet's  "  Give  me  more 
Love  or  more  Disdain,"  is  omitted  in  the  Golden  Treas- 
ury and  several  other  collections ;  we  shall  therefore 
quote  it :  — 

"  Give  me  more  love,  or  more  disdain: 

The  torrid  or  the  frozen  zone 
Bring  equal  ease  unto  my  pain ; 

The  temperate  affords  me  none ; 
Either  extreme  of  love  or  hate 
Is  sweeter  than  a  calm  estate. 

Give  me  a  storm :  if  it  be  love, 

Like  Danae  in  that  golden  shower, 
I  swim  in  pleasure;  if  it  prove 

Disdain,  that  torrent  will  devour 
My  vulture  hopes,  and  he's  possessed 
Of  heaven,  that's  but  from  hell  released; 
Then  crown  my  joys,  or  cure  my  pain ; 
Give  me  more  love,  or  more  disdain." 

The  following  extract  is  from  George  Wither's  poem 
of  "  The  Steadfast  Shepherd  :  "  — 

"  Can  he  prize  the  tainted  posies 

Which  on  every  breast  are  worn, 
That  may  pluck  the  virgin  roses 
From  their  never  touched  thorn  ? 
I  can  go  rest 
On  her  sweet  breast, 
That  is  the  pride  of  Cynthia's  train ; 
Then  stay  thy  tongue : 
Thy  mermaid  song 
Is  all  bestowed  on  me  in  vain. 

He's  a  fool  that  basely  dallies 
Where  each  peasant  mates  with  him: 

Shall  I  haunt  the  thronged  valleys, 
While  there's  noble  hills  to  climb? 


LYRICAL  POETKY.  441 

No,  no !  though  clowns 
Are  scared  with  frowns, 
I  know  the  best  can  but  disdain ; 
And  those  I'll  prove, 
So  will  thy  love 
Be  all  bestowed  on  me  in  vain." 

Cowley's  "  Mistress  "  is  a  collection  of  love  songs  full 
of  bold  or  curious  figures,  of  far-fetched,  fanciful  com' 
parisons.  The  following  stanzas,  entitled  "  Her  Name," 
are  very  musical  and  graceful :  — 

"  With  more  than  Jewish  reverence  as  yet 

Do  I  the  Sacred  Name  conceal ; 
When,  ye  kind  stars,  ah !  when  will  it  be  fit 

This  gentle  mystery  to  reveal  ? 
When  will  our  love  be  named,  and  we  possess 
That  christening  as  a  badge  of  happiness  ? 

So  bold  as  yet  no  verse  of  mine  has  been, 

To  wear  that  gem  on  any  line; 
Nor,  till  the  happy  nuptial  Muse  be  seen, 

Shall  any  stanza  with  it  shine. 
Rest,  mighty  Name,  till  then ;  for  thou  must  be 
Laid  down  by  her,  ere  taken  up  by  me. 

Then  all  the  fields  and  woods  shall  with  it  ring ; 

Then  Echo's  burden  it  shall  be; 
Then  all  the  birds  in  several  notes  shall  sing, 

And  all  the  rivers  murmur  thee ; 
Then  every  wind  the  sound  shall  upward  bear, 
And  softly  whisper' t  to  some  angel's  ear. 

Then  shall  thy  Name  through  all  my  verse  be  spread 

Thick  as  the  flowers  in  meadows  lie ; 
And  when  in  future  times  they  shall  be  read 

(As  sure,  I  think,  they  will  not  die), 
If  any  critic  doubt  that  they  be  mine, 
Men  by  that  stamp  shall  quickly  know  the  coin. 

Meanwhile  I  will  not  dare  to  make  a  name 

To  represent  thee  by ; 
Adam,  God's  nomenclator,  could  not  frame 

One  that  enough  should  signify ; 
Astrsea  or  Celia  as  unfit  would  prove 
For  thee,  as  'tis  to  call  the  Deity,  Jove.'* 


442  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

The  following  stanzas  give  a  favorable  idea  of  the 
amatory  odes  of  Herrick  :  — 

"  *  To  THE  VIRGINS,  TO  MAKE  MUCH  OF  TIME.' 

"  Gather  ye  rosebuds  while  ye  may: 

Old  Time  is  still  a-flying; 
And  this  same  flower  that  smiles  to-day 
To-morrow  will  be  dying. 

The  glorious  lamp  of  heaven,  the  sun, 

The  higher  he's  a-getting, 
The  sooner  will  his  race  be  run, 

And  nearer  he's  to  setting. 

That  age  is  best  which  is  the  first, 
When  youth  and  blood  are  warmer ; 

But,  being  spent,  the  worse  and  worst 
Times  still  succeed  the  former. 

Then  be  not  coy,  but  use  your  time, 

And,  while  ye  may,  go  marry ; 
For,  having  lost  but  once  your  prime, 

You  may  forever  tarry." 

Milton,  Dryden,  and  Pope  furnish  us  with  nothing 
to  quote  under  this  head.  When  we  come  to  modern 
times,  the  difficulty  lies  in  the  selection.  What  treas- 
ures of  lyrical  force  and  sweetness  are  contained  in  the 
love  songs  of  Burns!  We  must  give  at  least  one 
example  :  — 

"  O  Mary,  at  thy  window  be  : 

It  is  the  wished,  the  trysted  hour  I 
Those  smiles  and  glances  let  me  see 

That  make  the  miser's  treasure  poor; 
How  blithely  wad  I  bide  the  stoure, 

A  weary  slave  frae  sun  to  sun, 
Could  I  the  rich  reward  secure, 

The  lovely  Mary  Morison ! 

Yestreen  when  to  the  trembling  string 
The  dance  gaed  thro'  the  lighted  ha', 

To  thee  my  fancy  took  its  wing : 
I  sat,  but  neither  heard  nor  saw ; 


LYRICAL   POETRY.  443 

Tho'  this  was  fair,  and  that  was  braw, 

And  yon  the  toast  of  a'  the  town, 
I  sighed,  and  said  amang  them  a', 

*  Ye  are  na  Mary  Morison.' 

O  Mary,  canst  thou  wreck  his  peace 

Wha  for  thy  sake  wad  gladly  dee  ? 
Or  canst  thou  break  that  heart  of  his, 

Whase  only  f aut  is  loving  thee  ? 
If  love  for  love  thou  wilt  nae  gie, 

At  least  be  pity  to  me  shown ; 
A  thought  ungentle  canna  be 

The  thought  o'  Mary  Morison." 

In  grace  and  melfcdy,  if  not  in  pathos,  Moore's  love 
songs  may  be  matched  with  those  of  Burns,  as  the  fol- 
io whig  lines  exemplify :  — 

«« Take  back  the  virgin  page 

White  and  unwritten  still : 
Some  hand  more  calm  and  sage 

That  leaf  must  fill ; 
Thoughts  come  as  pure  as  light, 

Pure  as  even  you  require ; 
But,  oh  1  each  word  I  write 
Love  turns  to  fire. 

Yet  let  me  keep  the  book : 

Oft  shall  my  heart  renew, 
When  on  its  leaves  I  look, 
Dear  thoughts  of  you. 
Like  you,  'tis  fair  and  bright; 
Like  you,  too  bright  and  fair 
To  let  wild  passion  write 
One  wrong  wish  there. 

"  Haply,  when  from  those  eyes 

Far,  far  away  I  roam, 
Should  calmer  thoughts  arise 
Towards  thee  and  home, 
Fancy  may  trace  some  line 

Worthy  those  eyes  to  meet,  — 
Thoughts  that  not  burn  but  shine, 
Pure,  calm,  and  sweet." 


444  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Byron's  "Maid  of  Athens,"  Shelley's  "  Epithala- 
mium,"  and  Coleridge's  "  Genevieve,"  we  must  be  con- 
tent with  naming. 

5.  Revelry  is  a  lyrical  theme  which  has  been  largely 
illustrated  by  our  poets,  especially  by  those  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.     We  must  confine  ourselves  to  a  single 
specimen,  taken  from  Cowley :  — 

"  The  thirsty  earth  soaks  up  the  rain, 
And  drinks,  and  gapes  for  drink  again ; 
The  plants  suck  in  the  earth,  and  are 
With  constant  drinking  fresh  and  fair; 
The  sea  itself,  which  one  wou^l  think 
Should  have  but  little  need  of  drink, 
Drinks  ten  thousand  rivers  up 
So  filled  that  they  o'erflow  the  cup. 
The  busy  sun  (and  one  would  guess 
By  his  drunken  fiery  face  no  less) 
Drinks  up  the  sea;  and,  when  he's  done, 
The  moon  and  stars  drink  up  the  sun. 
They  drink  and  dance  by  their  own  light; 
They  drink  and  revel  all  the  night. 
Nothing  in  Nature's  sober  found, 
But  an  eternal  health  goes  round. 
Fill  up  the  bowl,  then,  fill  it  high; 
Fill  all  the  glasses  there;  for  why 
Should  every  creature  drink  but  I  ? 
Why,  men  of  morals,  tell  me  why  ?  " 

6.  The  lyrics  of  war,  whatever  may  be  the  reason, 
are  not  found  in  great  numbers,  nor  of  extraordinary 
merit,  in  English  literature.     We  might  mention  Camp- 
bell's "  Hohenlinden  "  and  "  Battle  of  the  Baltic,"  the 
stirring  ballad  of  "  Count  Albert,"  and  the  gathering 
song  "Pibroch  of  Donuil  Dhu,"  both  by  Scott;  and 
Macaulay's  ballads  of  "  Naseby  "  and '/  Ivry,"  and  "  Lays 
of    Rome."       In   Dryden's  great  lyric,    "  Alexander's 
Feast,"  the  "  mighty  master  "  of  the  lyre,  after  success- 
fully preluding  upon  the  themes  of  love  and  revelry, 
thus  in  a  bolder  strain  summons  the  hero  to  war :  — 


ELEGIAC   POETKY.  445 

;'Now  strike  the  golden  lyre  again,  — 
A  louder  yet,  and  yet  a  louder  strain : 
Break  his  bands  of  sleep  asunder, 
And  rouse  him  like  a  rattling  peal  of  thunder. 
Hark,  hark !  the  horrid  sound 
Has  raised  up  his  head, 
As  awaked  from  the  dead, 
And  amazed  he  stares  around : 
Revenge,  revenge !  Timotheus  cries, 
See  the  Furies  arise ! 
See  the  snakes  that  they  rear ! 
How  they  hiss  in  their  hair, 
And  the  sparkles  that  flash  from  their  eyes  I 
Behold  a  ghastly  band, 
Each  a  torch  in  his  hand ! 

Those  are  Grecian  ghosts,  that  in  battle  were  slain, 
And  unburied  remain 
Inglorious  on  the  plain ; 
Give  the  vengeance  due 
To  the  valiant  crew ! 

Behold  how  they  toss  their  torches  on  high, 
How  they  point  to  the  Persian  abodes, 
And  glittering  temples  of  the  hostile  gods. 
The  princes  applaud  with  a  furious  joy, 
And  the  king  seized  a  flambeau  with  zeal  to  destroy ; 
Thais  led  the  way 
To  light  him  to  his  prey, 
And,  like  another  Helen,  fired  another  Troy!  " 


Elegiac  Poetry:    "  Fidele,"    "The   Castaway,"  "  Lycidas," 
"  Adonais." 

English  poetry,  in  sympathy  with  the  sad  and  lower- 
ing skies  of  our  northern  climate,  is  never  more  power- 
ful and  pathetic  than  when  heard  in  the  accents  of 
mourning.  The  influences  of  external  nature  and  of 
the  national  temperament  dispose  our  poets  to  tacitur- 
nity and  though tf ulness ;  and,  in  a  world  so  full  of 
change  and  death,  thoughtfulness  easily  passes  into 
sadness.  Elegiac  poems  may  be  distinguished  as 
objective  or  subjective,  according  as  their  tenor  and 
general  aim  may  be,  either  simply  to  occupy  themselves 

88 


446  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

with  the  fortunes,  character,  and  acts  of  the  departed, 
or  to  found  a  train  of  musings,  having  reference  to 
self,  or  at  least  strongly  colored  by  the  writer's  person- 
ality, upon  the  fact  of  bereavement.  Among  those  of 
the  former  class  may  be  specified,  the  dirge  in  Cym- 
beline,  Milton's  sonnet  on  Shakspeare,  Dryden's  elegy 
on  Cromwell,  Tickell's  on  Addison,  Cowper's  lines  on 
"  The  Loss  of  the  Royal  George,"  Campbell's  "  Lord 
Ullin's  Daughter,"  the  song  of  Harold  in  "The  Lay  of 
the  Last  Minstrel,"  Cowper's  "  Castaway,"  and  Pope's 
:t  Elegy  on  an  Unfortunate  Lady."  Nothing  can  exceed 
the  simple  beauty  of  the  song  of  the  brothers  over  the 
body  of  Fidele : l  — 

"  Fear  no  more  the  heat  o'  the  sun, 

Nor  the  furious  winter's  rages; 
Thou  thy  worldly  task  hast  done, 

Home  thou  art  gone,  and  ta'en  thy  wages : 
Golden  lads  and  girls  all  must, 
As  chimney-sweepers,  come  to  dust. 

Fear  no  more  the  frown  o'  the  great, 

Thou  art  past  the  tyrant's  stroke; 
Care  no  more  to  clothe  and  eat ; 

To  thee  the  reed  is  as  the  oak : 
The  sceptre,  learning,  physic,  must 
All  follow  this,  and  come  to  dust. 

Fear  no  more  the  lightning  flash, 

Nor  the  all-dreaded  thunder-stone ; 
Fear  not  slander,  censure  rash; 

Thou  hast  finished  joy  and  moan ; 
All  lovers  young,  all  lovers,  must 
Consign  to  thee,  and  come  to  dust. 

No  exerciser  harm  thee  1 
Nor  no  witchcraft  charm  thee ! 
Ghost  unlaid  forbear  thee ! 
Nothing  ill  come  near  thee ! 
Quiet  consummation  have, 
And  renowned  be  thy  grave ! " 

1  Cymbeline,  Act  iv.  Scene  2. 


ELEGIAC   POETKY.  447 

Cowper's  lines  on  the  loss  of  the  Royal  George  sound 
like  the  passing  bell :  — 

"  Toll  for  the  brave,  — 

The  brave  that  are  no  more ! 
All  sunk  beneath  the  wave 
Fast  by  their  native  shore ! " 

"The  Castaway,"  by  the  same  author,  combines 
what  is  most  touching  in  both  kinds  of  elegy.  After  a 
minute  description  of  the  long  struggle  for  life  of  the 
sailor  lost  overboard,  the  interest  of  the  tale,  great  in 
itself,  is  suddenly  rendered  tenfold  more  intense  by  the 
application  of  it  in  the  last  stanza  to  the  case  of  the 
unhappy  writer :  — 

"  No  voice  divine  the  storm  allayed, 

No  light  propitious  shone, 
When,  far  from  all  effectual  aid, 

We  perished,  each  alone ; 
But  I  beneath  a  rougher  sea, 
And  whelmed  in  blacker  gulfs  than  he." 

A  similar  turn  is  given  to  the  conclusion  of  Pope's 
"Elegy:"  — 

"  So  peaceful  rests  without  a  stone,  a  name, 
What  once  had  beauty,  titles,  wealth,  and  fame. 
How  loved,  how  honored  once,  avails  thee  not, 
To  whom  related,  or  by  whom  begot ; 
A  heap  of  dust  alone  remains  of  thee : 
'Tis  all  thou  art,  and  all  the  proud  shall  be ! 
Poets  themselves  must  fall  like  those  they  sung ; 
Deaf  the  praised  ear,  and  mute  the  tuneful  tongue ; 
E'en  he  whose  soul  now  melts  in  mournful  lays 
Shall  shortly  want  the  generous  tear  he  pays. 
Then  from  his  closing  eyes  thy  form  shall  part, 
And  the  last  pang  shall  tear  thee  from  his  heart ; 
Life's  idle  business  at  one  gasp  be  o'er; 
The  Muse  forgot,  and  thou  beloved  no  more! " 

Among  elegies  of  the  subjective  class  may  be  men- 
tioned the  lines  written  by  Raleigh  the  night  before 


448  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

his  death,  Cowley's  elegy  on  Crashaw,  Milton's  "  Lyci- 
das,"  Gray's  "  Elegy  in  a  Country  Churchyard,"  and 
Shelley's  "  Adonais."  At  the  close  of  his  meteor-like 
career,  the  gallant  Raleigh  wrote  his  own  epitaph  in 
these  few  pious  and  feeling  lines:  — 

"  Even  such  is  Time,  that  takes  on  trust 

Our  youth,  our  joys,  our  all  we  have, 
And  pays  us  but  with  age  and  dust ; 

Who  in  the  dark  and  silent  grave, 
When  we  have  wandered  all  our  ways, 
Shuts  up  the  story  of  our  days. 
But  from  this  earth,  this  grave,  this  dust, 
The  Lord  shall  raise  me  up,  I  trust." 

"  Lycidas  "  was  written  by  Milton  to  commemorate 
the  death  of  a  college  friend,  Mr.  King,  who  was 
drowned  on  the  passage  from  England  to  Ireland. 
But  Milton's  grief  sets  him  thinking ;  and,  in  this 
remarkable  poem,  the  monotone  of  a  deep  sorrow  is 
replaced  by  the  linked  musings  of  a  mind,  which, 
once  set  in  motion  by  grief,  pours  forth  abundantly 
the  treasures  of  thought  and  imagination  stored  up 
within  it.  The  following  eloquent  passage  contains 
a  line  that  has  almost  passed  into  a  proverb  :  — 

"  Alas !  what  boots  it  with  incessant  care 
To  tend  the  homely  slighted  shepherd's  trade, 
And  strictly  meditate  the  thankless  Muse? 
Were  it  not  better  done,  as  others  use, 
To  sport  with  Amaryllis  in  the  shade, 
Or  with  the  tangles  of  Nesera's  hair? 
Fame  is  the  spur  that  the  clear  spirit  doth  raise 
(That  last  infirmity  of  noble  mind) 
To  scorn  delights,  and  live  laborious  days ; 
But  the  fair  guerdon  when  we  hope  to  find, 
And  think  to  burst  out  into  sudden  blaze, 
Comes  the  blind  Fury  with  the  abhorred  shears, 
And  slits  the  thin-spun  life.     *  But  not  the  praise,* 
Phoebus  replied,  and  touched  my  trembling  ears : 


MISCELLANEOUS   POEMS.  449 

4  Fame  is  no  plant  that  grows  on  mortal  soil, 
Nor  in  the  glistering  foil 
Set  off  to  the  world,  nor  in  broad  rumor  lies ; 
But  lives  and  spreads  aloft  by  those  pure  eyes 
And  perfect  witness  of  all-seeing  Jove ; 
As  he  pronounces  lastly  on  each  deed, 
Of  so  much  fame  in  heaven  expect  thy  meed.'  " 

So  also  in  "  Adonais,"  which  is  an  elegy  on  Keats,  the 
glorious  imagination  of  Shelley  transports  him  into 
regions  far  beyond  the  reach  of  the  perturbations  of  a 
common  grief :  — 

"  The  breath  whose  might  I  have  invoked  in  song 

Descends  on  me;  my  spirit's  bark  is  driven 
Far  from  the  land,  far  from  the  trembling  throng 

Whose  sails  were  never  to  the  tempest  given. 

The  massy  earth  and  sphered  skies  are  riven ; 
I  am  borne  darkly,  fearfully  afar; 

Whilst,  burning  through  the  inmost  veil  of  heaven, 
The  soul  of  Adonais,  like  a  star, 
Beacons  from  the  abode  where  the  Eternal  are." 

It  would  be  impossible  to  give  an  adequate  idea  of 
Gray's  famous  elegy  by  a  short  extract,  but  the  stu- 
dent is  recommended  to  read  the  entire  poem  carefully. 
He  will  find  it  eminently  subjective  in  spirit ;  and  may 
compare  it  with  Hamlet's  moralizings  over  the  skull 
of  Yorick.  Both  may  be  regarded  as  products  of  a 
mind  in  which  there  is  a  morbid  preponderance  of  the 
contemplative  faculty,  —  the  balance  not  being  duly 
maintained  between  the  impressions  from  outward 
objects  and  the  inward  operations  of  the  intellect.1 

Miscellaneous  Poems. 

A  large  number  of  poems,  chiefly  belonging  to 
modern  times,  still  remain  unnoticed,  because  they 

1  See  Coleridge's  remarks  on  Hamlet.  Literary  Remains,  vol.  ii. 
p.  204. 

38* 


450  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

refuse  to  be  classified  under  any  of  the  received  and 
long-established  designations.  This  miscellaneous  sec- 
tion we  propose  to  divide  into,  — 

1.  Poems  founded  on  the  passions  and  affections. 

2.  Poems  of  sentiment  and  reflection. 

3.  Poems  of  imagination  and  fancy. 

4.  Philosophical  poetry. 

1.  Poems  of  the  first  kind  are  evidently  of  the  lyri- 
cal order ;  but  they  are  not  to  be  classed  among  lyrics, 
because  they  are  deficient  in  the  excitation  of  thought 
and  rapidity  of  movement  which  the  true  lyric  must 
exhibit.  They  occur  in  great  numbers  in  the  works 
of  modern  poets  ;  and,  if  a  type  of  excellence  in  the 
kind  were  required,  a  purer  one  could  not  easily  be 
found  than  Wordsworth's  "  Michael."  Many  have 
seen  the  unfinished  sheepfold  in  Green  Head  Ghyll, 
referred  to  in  the  following  lines,  which  Michael,  the 
old  Westmoreland  "  statesman,"  after  the  news  had 
come  that  the  son  so  tenderly  cherished  had  brought 
disgrace  and  peril  on  his  head,  had  never  afterwards 
the  heart  to  complete  :  — 

'*  There  is  a  comfort  in  the  strength  of  love; 
'Twill  make  a  thing  endurable,  which  else 
Would  overset  the  brain,  or  break  the  heart. 
I  have  conversed  with  more  than  one,  who  well 
Remember  the  old  man,  and  what  he  was 
Years  after  he  had  heard  this  heavy  news. 
His  bodily  frame  had  been  from  yonth  to  age 
Of  an  unusual  strength.     Among  the  rocks 
He  went,  and  still  looked  up  to  sun  and  cloud, 
And  listened  to  the  wind ;  and,  as  before, 
Performed  all  kinds  of  labor  for  his  sheep, 
And  for  the  land,  his  small  inheritance. 
And  to  that  hollow  dell  from  time  to  time 
Did  he  repair,  to-  build  the  fold  of  which 
His  flock  had  need.    'Tis  not  forgotten  yet, 


MISCELLANEOUS   POEMS.  451 

The  pity  which  was  then  in  every  heart 

For  the  old  man ;  and  'tis  believed  by  all 

That  many  and  many  a  day  he  thither  went, 

And  never  lifted  up  a  single  stone. 

There,  by  the  sheepfold,  sometimes  was  he  seen 

Sitting  alone,  or  with  his  faithful  dog, 

Then  old,  beside  him,  lying  at  his  feet. 

The  length  of  full  seven  years,  from  time  to  time, 

He  at  the  building  of  this  sheepfold  wrought, 

And  left  the  work  unfinished  when  he  died. 

Three  years,  or  little  more,  did  Isabel 

Survive  her  husband:  at  her  death  the  estate 

Was  sold,  and  went  into  a  stranger's  hand. 

The  cottage,  which  was  named  the  Evening  Star, 

Is  gone ;  the  ploughshare  has  been  through  the  ground 

On  which  it  stood ;  great  changes  have  been  wrought 

In  all  the  neighborhood :   yet  the  oak  is  left 

That  grew  beside  their  door;  and  the  remains 

Of  the  unfinished  sheepfold  may  be  seen, 

Beside  the  boisterous  brook  of  Green  Head  Ghyll." 

Pope's  "  Eloisa  to  Abelard,"  a  poem  in  which  love, 
pride,  repentance,  and  despair  seem  to  be  striving 
together  for  the  mastery,  and  an  overcharged  heart 
seeks  relief  in  bursts  of  wild,  half-frenzied  eloquence, 
must  also  be  placed  among  poems  of  this  class. 

2.  Sentiment  may  be  regarded  as  the  synthesis  of 
thought  and  feeling ;  and  therefore  poems  of  this 
second  class  hold  an  intermediate  place  between  those 
founded  on  the  passions  and  affections,  and  those  in 
which  intellectual  faculties  are  solely  or  principally 
exercised.  They  are  very  numerous  in  every  period 
of  our  literary  history.  Spenser's  "  Ruines  of  Time  " 
is  an  early  and  very  beautiful  example.  In  the  midst 
of  a  personified  presentment  of  Fame,  the  wish  re- 
corded of  Alexander  is  thus  strikingly  related  :  — 

"  But  Fame  with  golden  wing  aloft  doth  flie 

Above  the  reach  of  ruinous  decay, 
And  with  brave  plumes  doth  beat  the  azure  skie, 
Admired  of  base-born  men  from  f arre  away ; 


452  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

Then  whoso  will  by  vertuous  deeds  assay 
To  mount  to  heaven,  on  Pegasus  must  ride, 
And  by  sweet  poets'  verse  be  glorified. 

For  not  to  have  been  dipt  in  Lethe  lake 
Could  save  the  son  of  Thetis  from  to  die, 

But  that  blind  bard  did  him  immortal  make 
With  verses  dipped  in  dew  of  Castalie ; 
Which  made  the  Eastern  Conquerour  to  crie, 

'  O  fortunate  young  man  whose  vertue  found 

So  brave  a  trump,  thy  noble  acts  to  sound ! '  " 

Sir  John  Davies's  poem  on  "  The  Immortality  of  the 
Soul "  may  be  classed  either  with  the  present  series,  or 
under  the  head  of  didactic  poetry.  The  poetry  of 
Quarles  is  partly  sentimental,  partly  fantastic.  A  fine 
couplet  occurs  in  the  poem  entitled  "  Faith  :  "  — 

"Brave  minds  oppressed,  should,  in  despite  of  fate, 
Look  greatest,  like  the  sun,  in  lowest  state." 

"  The  SouPs  Errand  "  said  to  be  by  Raleigh,  Milton's 
"  Penseroso,"  Dryden's  "  Religio  Laici,"  and  Burns's 
"  Cotter's  Saturday  Night,"  are  additional  examples. 
Cowper's  "  Lines  on  his  Mother's  Picture "  deserve 
special  mention.  The  chief  merits  of  this  celebrated 
poem  are,  a  remarkable  tenderness  and  purity  of 
feeling ;  the  vividness  of  imagination  with  which  past 
scenes  and  circumstances  are  represented  ;  and,  occa- 
sionally, dignity  of  thought  couched  in  graceful  expres- 
sions. Its  demerits  are,  the  egotistic  strain  which  is 
apt  to  affect  a  poet  who  leads  an  unemployed  and 
retired  life,  leading  him  to  dwell  on  circumstances 
trivial  or  vulgar,  equally  with  those  of  a  truly  poetical 
cast,  because  they  interest  himself ;  and  a  lamentable 
inequality  hence  arising :  such  worthless  lines  as,  — 

"  The  biscuit  or  confectionary  plum ; " 

or, 

"  I  pricked  them  into  paper  with  a  pin,"  — 


MISCELLANEOUS  POEMS.  453 

occurring  side  by  side  with  others  most  musical  and 
suggestive,  such  as,  — 

"  Children  not  thine  have  trod  my  nursery  floor," 
and 

"  Time  has  but  half  succeeded  in  his  theft,  — 
Thyself  removed,  thy  power  to  soothe  me  left." 

"Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage  "  must  also  be  ranked 
with  poems  of  sentiment  and  reflection  ;  for,  though 
in  form  it  resembles  a  descriptive  poem,  that  which 
gives  it  its  peculiar  character  is  not  the  description  of 
any  external  scenes,  but  the  minute  analysis  and  exhi- 
bition of  the  writer's  feelings,  reflections,  and  states  of 
mind.  The  third  canto,  for  instance,  is,  in  a  great 
measure,  a  piece  of  autobiography.  Written  in  1816, 
just  after  he  had  been  separated  from  his  wife  and 
child,  and,  amidst  a  storm  of  obloquy,  had  passed  into 
voluntary  exile,  this  canto  paints  the  revolt  of  Byron's 
tortured  spirit  against  the  world's  opinion,  to  which, 
while  he  scorned  it,  he  was  to  the  last  a  slave.  The 
moral  of  all  the  earlier  portion  is  scarcely  caricatured 
by  the  parody  in  "  The  Rejected  Addresses :  "  — 

"  Woe's  me!  the  brightest  wreaths  [JoyJ  ever  gave, 

Are  but  as  flowers  that  decorate  a  tomb. 
Man's  heart,  the  mournful  urn  o'er  which  they  wave, 
Is  sacred  to  despair,  its  pedestal  the  grave." 

Many  lines  current  in  general  conversation,  but  often 
quoted  in  ignorance  of  the  source  whence  they  come, 
occur  in  "  Childe  Harold."  Few  have  not  heard  of 
those  magnificent  equivalents  by  which  the  skull  is 
described  as  — 

"  The  dome  of  thought,  the  palace  of  the  soul." 
Again,  O' Council's  favorite  quotation  at  the  repeal 


454  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

meetings  of  1844  is  found  in  the  second  canto ;  it  is  an 
invocation  to  the  modern  Greeks :  — 

"  Hereditary  bondsmen !  know  ye  not, 
Who  would  be  free,  themselves  must  strike  the  blow?" 

At  the  ball  given  in  Brussels  on  the  night  before 
the  advance  on  Waterloo,  we  read  that 

"  All  went  merry  as  a  marriage  bell." 

And  it  is  said  of  the  young  French  general,  Marceau, 

that  — 

"  He  had  kept 
The  whiteness  of  his  soul,  and  so  men  o'er  him  wept." 

Ill  this  dream-land  of  sentiment,  where  the  dry  light 
of  the  intellect  is  variously  colored  and  modified  by  the 
play  of  the  emotions,  the  magnificent  shadowy  ideas  of 
Wordsworth's  "  Ode  on  the  Intimations  of  Immortal- 
ity "  find  their  appropriate  home.1 

3.  Imagination  and  fancy  are4  both  intellectual 
faculties  ;  and  the  main  function  of  both  is  to  detect 
and  exhibit  the  resemblances  which  exist  among  objects 
of  sense  or  intelligence.  The  difference  between  them, 
according  to  the  doctrine  of  Coleridge,  may  be  generally 
stated  thus  :  that,  whereas  fancy  exhibits  only  external 
resemblances,  imagination  loves  to  disclose  the  internal 
and  essential  relations  which  bind  together  things 
apparently  uulike.  Drayton's  "  Nymphidia  "  is  the 
creation  of  a  fancy  the  liveliest  and  most  inventive,  but 
shows  little  or  no  imaginative  power.  On  the  other 
hand,  Shakspeare's  "Venus  and  Adonis,"  Milton's 
u  L'Allegro,"  and  the  most  perfect  among  Shelley's 
poems,  are  works  of  imagination.  If  we  analyze  the 
series  of  comparisons  of  which  Shelley  makes  his 
"  Skylark  "  the  subject,  we  shall  find  that  in  every  case 

i  See  p.  357. 


MISCELLANEOUS   POEMS.  455 

the  likeness  indicated  lies  deeper  than  the  surface,  and 
calls  into  play  higher  faculties  than  the  mere  intellec- 
tual reproduction  of  the  impressions  of  sense  :  — 

"  Like  a  poet  hidden 

In  the  light  of  thought, 
Singing  hymns  unbidden, 

Till  the  world  is  wrought 
To  sympathy  with  hopes  and  fears  it  heeded  not; 

Like  a  high-born  maiden 

In  a  palace  tower, 
Soothing  her  love-laden 

Soul  in  secret  hour 
With  music  sweet  as  love,  which  overflows  her  bower: 

Like  a  glow-worm  golden 

In  a  dell  of  dew, 
Scattering  unbeholden 

Its  aerial  hue 
Among  the  flowers  and  grass,  which  screen  it  from  her  view ; 

Like  a  rose  embowered 

In  its  own  green  leaves, 
By  warm  winds  deflowered, 

Till  the  scent  it  gives 
Makes  faint  with  too  much  sweet  those  heavy-winged  thieves. 

Sound  of  vernal  showers 

On  the  twinkling  grass, 
Rain-awakened  flowers, 

All  that  ever  was 
Joyous  and  clear  and  fresh,  thy  music  doth  surpass." 

In  "  The  Cloud,"  by  the  same  poet,  the  imagery  is 
partly  fantastic,  partly  imaginative,  as  may  be  seen  in 
the  following  extract :  — 

"  That  orbed  maiden  with  white  fire  laden, 

Whom  mortals  call  the  moon, 
Glides  glimmering  o'er  my  fleece-like  floor, 

By  the  midnight  breezes  strewn; 
And  wherever  the  beat  of  her  unseen  feet, 

Which  only  the  angels  hear, 
May  have  broken  the  woof  of  my  tent's  thin  roof, 

The  stars  peep  behind  her  and  peer ; 


456  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

And  I  laugh  to  see  them  whirl  and  flee, 

Like  a  swarm  of  golden  bees, 
When  I  widen  the  rent  in  my  wind-built  tent, 

Till  the  calm  rivers,  lakes,  and  seas, 
Like  strips  of  the  sky  fallen  through  me  on  high, 

Are  each  paved  with  the  moon  and  these. 


"  I  am  the  daughter  of  earth  and  water, 

And  the  nursling  of  the  sky ; 
I  pass  through  the  pores  of  the  ocean  and  shores ; 
'  I  change,  but  I  cannot  die. 
For  after  the  rain,  when  with  never  a  stain 

The  pavilion  of  heaven  is  bare, 
And  the  winds  and  sunbeams,  with  their  convex  gleams, 

Build  up  the  blue  dome  of  air, 
I  silently  laugh  at  my  own  cenotaph, 

And  out  of  the  caverns  of  rain, 
Like  a  child  from  the  womb,  like  a  ghost  from  the  tomb, 

I  arise  and  unbuild  it  again." 

4.  The  philosophical  is  distinguished  from  the  didac- 
tic poem  by  the  absence  of  a  set  moral  purpose.  In 
the  "  Essay  on  Man,"  Pope  starts  with  the  design  of 
"vindicating  the  ways  of  God;  "'and,  whatever  may 
be  thought  of  the  mode  of  vindication,  this  design  is 
adhered  to  throughout.  Nor,  again,  does  the  philo- 
sophical poem,  like  the  narrative  or  epic,  embody  a 
definite  story,  with  beginning,  middle,  and  end.  Its 
parts  may,  indeed,  be  connected,  as  in  the  case  of  "  The 
Excursion,"  by  a  slight  narrative  thread ;  but  its 
characteristic  excellence  does  not  depend  upon  this, 
but  upon  the  mode  in  which  the  different  subjects  and 
personages  introduced  are  philosophically  handled,  and, 
it  may  perhaps  be  said,  on  the  soundness  of  the  philos- 
ophy itself.  How  far  the  pursuit  of  these  objects  is 
consistent  with  the  full  production  of  that  kind  of 
pleasure  which  it  is  the  business  of  poetry  to  excite,  is 
a  question  difficult  of  decision. 


PKOSE  FICTION.  457 


CHAPTER  II. 
PROSE    WRITINGS. 

A  EOUGH  general  classification  and  description  of  the 
subject-matter,  with  a  few  critical  sketches  of  particu- 
lar works  or  groups  of  works,  is  all  that  we  shall  at- 
tempt in  the  present  volume. 

The  prose  writings  of  our  literature  may  be  arranged 
under  the  following  six  heads :  — 

1.  Works  of  fiction. 

2.  Works  of  satire,  wit,  and  humor. 

3.  Oratory,    with    the    connected    departments    of 
journal-writing  and  pamphleteering. 

4.  History ;  including,  besides  history  proper,  biog- 
raphy, and  narrative  works  of  all  kinds,  as  subsidiary 
branches. 

5.  Theology. 

6.  Philosophy ;  including,  besides  philosophy  proper, 
essays  and  political  treatises,  and  all  works  of  thought 
and  theory,  e.g.,  aesthetics  and  literary  criticism. 

1.  Prose  Fiction. 

By  a  work  of  fiction  a  narrative  work  is  always 
understood.  A  fiction  which  describes  not  imaginary 
actions,  but  an  imaginary  state  of  things,  such  as 
More's  "  Utopia,"  must  be  considered  as  a  work  of 
thought  and  theory,  and  will  fall  under  our  sixth  head. 
Works  of  fiction,  then,  or  fictitious  narratives,  are  of 
two  kinds, — those  in  which  the  agencies  are  natural, 
and  those  in  which  they  are  not.  In  the  latter  case 
they  are  called  romances ;  in  the  former,  stories  of  com- 


458  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

mon  life.  Romances  are  either  mock  or  serious  ;  and 
mock  romances  may  be  either  satirical,  humorous,  or 
comic.  Stories  of  common  life  are  divided  into  tales 
of  adventure,  and  novels ;  the  novel  being  in  its  high- 
est and  purest  form  the  correlative  in  prose  of  the  epic 
poem  in  poetry,  and,  like  it,  treating  of  "  one  great 
complex  action,  in  a  lofty  style,  and  with  fulness  of 
detail."  1  Whatever  be  its  form,  the  novel  must  possess 
unity  of  plan,  and  is  thereby  distinguishable  from  the 
mere  tale  of  adventure  or  travel,  in  which  this  unity  is 
not  required.  Novels,  again,  may  either  refer  to  the 
past,  in  which  case  they  are  called  historical  novels,  or 
to  the  present.  If  the  latter,  they  admit  of  a  further 
subdivision,  according  to  the  social  level  at  which  the 
leading  characters  move,  into  novels  of  high  life,  of 
middle  life,  and  of  low  life.  Further,  there  is  a  cross 
division  applicable  to  the  whole  class  of  novels,  into 
those  of  the  artistic  and  those  of  the  didactic  kind. 
The  following  table  exhibits  the  above  classification  of 
works  of  fiction  at  a  glance  :  — 

FICTITIOUS  NARRATIVES. 
I 


I  I 

1.  Romances.  Stories  of  common  life. 


_  _ 

r      ~~i  i  i 

Mock.          Serious.        9   xrnT70ia   )  Artistic.      3.  Tales  of  adven- 

1.  Satirical.  \  Didactic.          ture.    Defoe. 

Swift.  _  |  _ 

2.  Humorous.  I 


3.  Comic.       4.  Novels  of  the  past. 

(Historical)  Novels  of  the  present. 

Sir  W.  Scott. 


I  I 

5.  Novels  of  high  6.  Novels  of  middle       7.  Novels  of  low 

life.  life.  life. 

Richardson,  Fielding,  Smollett. 

Mrs.  Gore.  Miss  Austen. 


PROSE  FICTION.  459 

1.  The  word  "  romance  "  is  here  used  in  a  sense  which 
implies,  that,  in  works  so  called,  some  preternatural  or 
supernatural  agency  is  instrumental  in  working  out  the 
plot.     We  have  not  many  serious  romances  in  English ; 
The  "  Grand  Cyprus,"  and  other  delectable  productions 
of  Scudery  and  Calprenede,  were  read,  admired,  and 
translated  amongst  us  in  their  day,  but  do  not  appear 
to  have  been  imitated,  at  least  in  prose.     "  St.  Leon," 
by  Godwin,  "  Frankenstein,  or  the  Ghost-seer,"  by  his 
daughter  Mrs.  Shelley,  and  "  The  Old  English  Baron," 
by  Clara  Reeve,  are  among  the  principal  performances 
in   this  kind.     "  The  Phantom  Ship,"  by  Capt.  Mar- 
ryatt,  is  a  remarkable  and  beautiful  story,  founded  on 
the   grand   old  legend   of  "  The   Flying   Dutchman." 
One   of  the  Waverley  novels,   "  The   Monastery,"   in 
which  the  apparitions  of  the  White  Lady  of  Avenel 
have  an  important  influence  on  the  development  of  the 
story,  falls  accordingly  within  the  scope  of  our  defini- 
tion.    The  most  notable  examples  of  the  mock  romance 
are  "  The  Travels  of  Lemuel  Gulliver."     The   comic 
variety  is  exemplified  in  the  Voyages  of  Brobdingnag 
and  Lilliput,  the  satirical  in  the  Voyages  to  the  Hou- 
ynhnms  and  Laputa. 

2.  The  distinction  of  novels  into  artistic  and  didactic 
is  founded  on  the  different  aims  which  entered  into 
their  composition.     The  artistic  novel  aims  at  the  beau- 
tiful representation  of  things  and  persons,  such  as  they 
really  appear  in  nature,  or  may  be  conceived  capable  of 
becoming ;  its   purpose   is   aesthetic,   and    not    moral. 
Goethe's  "  Wilhelm  Meister  "  is  a  celebrated  instance. 
The  didactic  novel  has  some  special  moral  lesson  in 
view,  which  the  progress  and   issue  of  the  story  are 
intended  to  enforce.    Godwin's  "•  Caleb  Williams,"  Bul- 
wer's  "  Paul  Clifford  "  and  "  Eugene  Aram,"  and  the 
whole  class  of  religious  novels,  are  instances  in  point. 


460  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

3.  Among   tales   of  adventure,   Defoe's   "Robinson 
Crusoe  "  bears  the  palm.     Among  the  many  imitations, 
more  or  less  close,  to  which  that  celebrated  production 
has   given   rise,    may  be   particularized    Miss   Porter's 
"  Narrative  of  Sir  Edward  Seaward,"  and  Capt.  Mar- 
ryatt's  delightful  story  of  "  Masterman  Ready."     "  The 
"  Travels   of  Anastasius,"  by  Hope,   enjoyed   a  great 
reputation  fifty  years  ago. 

4.  Novels  of  the  past  are  not  all  necessarily  historical 
novels,  since  they  may  relate  to  supposed  events  in  the 
private  life  of  former  ages,  whereas  by  the  historical 
novel   is   commonly  understood   a  work  of  which  the 
interest  principally  turns  on  the  introduction  of  some 
personages  or  events  of  historic  fame.     Thus  Bulwer's 
"  Last  Days  of  Pompeii,"  in  which  none  of  the  charac- 
ters are  historical,  can  only,  if  at  all,  claim  the  title  of 
an  historical  novel  in  virtue  of  the  historic  catastrophe, 
—  the  great  eruption  of  Vesuvius,  which  buried  Pompeii 
in  ashes  in  the  reign  of  Vespasian. 

In  the  historical  novel,  Sir  Walter  Scott,  the  in- 
ventor of  the  style,  remains  unapproached.  Out  of 
twenty-seven  novels  (omitting  short  tales)  which  com- 
pose the  Waverley  series,  twenty  are  historical.  The 
most  remote  period  to  which  the  author  has  ascended  is 
the  eleventh  century,  the  events  described  in  "  Count 
Robert  of  Paris  "  being  supposed  to  occur  during  the 
first  crusade.  This,  however,  is  one  of  the  latest  and 
least  interesting  of  the  series.  "  The  Betrothed,"  "  The 
Talisman,"  and  "  Ivanhoe,"  refer  to  the  twelfth  centu- 
ry ;  the  grand,  romantic  personage  of  Richard  Cceur  de 
Lion  figuring  prominently  in  both  the  novels  last 
named.  The  thirteenth  century  seems  to  have  had  no 
attractions  for  our  author ;  and  even  in  the  fourteenth, 
a  period  so  memorable  both  in  English  and  Scottish 
history,  he  has  given  us  only  "The  Fair  Maid  of 


PROSE   FICTION.  461 


Perth  "  and  "  Castle  Dangerous , "  the  striking  story 
of  "  Rienzi "  was  left  for  Bulwer  to  appropriate,  and 
work  up  into  an  historical  fiction  of  the  highest  order. 
In  the  fifteenth  century,  the  reign  of  Louis  XI.  is  admi- 
rably illustrated  in  "  Quentin  Durward  ;  "  in  which  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  Charles  the  Bold,  is  presented  to 
us  in  the  plenitude  of  his  power  and  prosperity ;  while 
in  "  Anne  of  Geierstein  "  we  see  that  power  humbled 
to  the  dust  by  the  arms  of  the  sturdy  Switzers.  "  The 
Monastery,"  with  its  sequel  "  The  Abbot,"  exhibits 
the  distracted  state  of  Scotland  during  the  religious 
wars  of  the  sixteenth  century.  In  "  Kenilworth,"  which 
belongs  to  the  same  period,  the  scene  is  laid  in  Eng- 
land, and  the  interest  centres  in  Dudley,  Earl  of  Leices- 
ter, and  the  unfortunate  Amy  Robsart.  The  seven- 
teenth century  must  have  possessed  a  peculiar  interest 
for  Scott;  for  the  plots  of  no  less  than  five  of  his 
novels  are  laid  in  it,  and  some  of  these  are  among  the 
most  successful  efforts  of  his  genius.  The  learned  fool 
James  I.  is  introduced  in  "  The  Fortunes  of  Nigel ; " 
"  The  Legend  of  Montrose  "  brings  before  us  the  ex- 
ploits of  that  gallant  but  ill-starred  chief,  and  creates 
for  us  the  admirable  portrait  of  the  veteran  soldier 
trained  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War  under  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  the  incomparable  Major  Dalgetty ;  Crom- 
well appears  in  "  Woodstock  ;  "  "  Peveril  of  the  Peak  " 
illustrates  the  startling  contrasts  which  existed  between 
the  gay  immoral  society  gathered  round  the  court  of 
Charles  II.,  and  the  terrible  Puritan  element  beneath 
the  surface,  crushed  down  but  still  formidable ;  lastly, 
in  "  Old  Mortality,"  deemed  by  many  to  be  the  author's 
most  perfect  production,  the  plot  is  connected  with  the 
insurrection  of  the  Scottish  Covenanters  in  1679,  and 
brings  before  us  the  haughty  form  of  Claverhouse. 
Four  novels  belong  to  the  eighteenth  century,  —  "  Rob 


462  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

Roy,"  "  The  Heart  of  Mid-Lothian,"  «  Waverley,"  and 
"  Redgauntlet."  In  the  first,  named  by  the  happy 
thought  of  Constable,  Scott's  publisher,  after  a  noted 
Highland  freebooter,  who  flourished  in  the  early  part 
of  the  century,  the  chief  historic  interest  lies  in  the  ad- 
mirable art  with  which  the  story  brings  out  the  contrast 
then  existing  between  the  civilized,  law-respecting  Low- 
lands, and  the  confused,  turbulent  state  of  things  a  few 
miles  off  across  the  Highland  border,  where  blackmail 
was  levied,  and  clannish  custom  was  nearly  supreme. 
In  "  The  Heart  of  Mid-Lothian,"  the  incidents  of  the 
Porteous  riots  at  Edinburgh  in  1736  are  interwoven 
with  the  plot ;  and  Caroline,  the  generous  and  strong- 
minded  queen  of  George  II.,  is  associated  with  her 
humble  petitioner,  Jeanie  Deans.  "  Waverley "  is  a 
tale  of  the  rising  of  the  clans  under  the  young  Preten- 
der in  1745 ;  and  "  Redgauntlet "  refers  to  a  contem- 
plated rising  of  the  English  Jacobites  a  few  years  later, 
which  the  unmanageable  obstinacy  of  the  Chevalier 
stifled  in  the  birth. 

5.  In  the  novel  of  high  life,  the  chief  actors  belong 
to  the  "  upper  ten  thousand  "  of  society.  Richardson, 
who  was  himself  the  son  of  a  joiner,  delighted  to  paint 
the  manners  of  this  class,  to  which  in  all  his  novels  the 
principal  personages  belong.  As  we  read  them,  we  asso^ 
ciate  with  Sir  Charles  Grandisons  and  Lady  Grandisons, 
with  Harriet  Byrons,  Lovelaces,  and  Count  Geronimos ; 
an  English  squire  or  a  foreign  nobleman  is  the  meanest 
company  we  frequent.  Yet  Richardson  has  high  excel- 
lences ;  his  characters  are  firmly  yet  delicately  drawn ; 
there  is  vigorous  original  outline,  filled  in  and  bodied 
out  by  a  number  of  fine,  almost  imperceptible  touches  ; 
the  diction,  though  often  copious  to  a  fault,  never  sinks 
to  mere  verbiage;  the  story  is  always  naturally  and 
probably  evolved ,  lastly,  the  author  never  obtrudes  his 


PEOSE  FICTION.  463 

own  personality,  but  leaves  his  work  before  you,  to 
impress  you  or  not,  according  to  its  and  your  own  in- 
trinsic qualities.  The  clever  novels  of  Mrs.  Gore  have 
a  yet  more  limited  range  than  those  of  Richardson; 
they  paint  the  present  generation,  and  therein  only  the 
inhabitants  of  May  Fair,  and  frequenters  of  Rotten  Row. 

6.  The  immense  majority  of  English  novels  portray 
the  manners  and  characters  which  are   common  in  the 
middle   ranks   of  society.     Not  to  speak  of'  works  by 
living  authors,  —  of  the  "  Pickwick  Papers  "  or  "  Vanity 
Fair,"  —  all    Fielding's    novels,1    "  Joseph    Andrews," 
"  Tom  Jones,"  and  "  Amelia,"  and  those  of  Miss  Aus- 
ten and  Miss  Edgeworth,  belong  to  this  class.     "  Pride 
and  Prejudice,"  by  Jane  Austen,  is  the  perfect  type  of 
a  novel  of  common  life  ;  the  story  so  concisely  and  dra- 
matically told,  the  language  so  simple,  the  shades  and 
half-shades  of  human  character  so  clearly  presented,  and 
the  operation  of  various  motives  so  delicately  traced,  — 
attest  this  gifted  woman  to  have  been  the  perfect  mis- 
tress  of  her  art.     Under  this   head  are  also  included 
such  of  Scott's  novels  as  have  no  historical  element, 
e.   g.,  "  Guy   Mannering,"    "  The    Antiquary,"    "  The 
Bride  of  Lammermoor,"  &c. 

7.  The  best  specimens  in  our  literature  of  the  novel 
of  low  life  are  by  living  authors.     Which  of  us  has  not 
turned  vagrant  with   Little    Nell,  and  dived  into  the 
recesses  of  the  Seven  Dials  with  Fagin  and  the  Artful 
Dodger?2     "Paul  Clifford"  also,  by  Bulwer,  belongs 
to   this   class;    and,   in    the    last    century,    Smollett's 
"  Roderick   Random "  and   several   of  Defoe's   novels, 
which  treat  principally  of  uproarious  scenes  and  rough 
characters,   from   which    the    sentimental    Richardson 
would  have  recoiled  in  disgust. 

1  For  an  admirable  account  of  them  and  their  author,  see  Thacke- 
ray's Lectures  on  the  English  Humorists. 

2  Characters  in  the  Old  Curiosity  Shop  and  Oliver  Twist. 


464  HISTOEY   OF   ENGLISH  LITEEATUEE. 

2.  Works  of  Satire,  Wit,  and  Humor. 

Among  the  best  performances  of  this  kind  which  our 
literature  contains,  are  "  The  Tale  of  a  Tub  "  and  "  The 
Battle  of  the  Books"  by  Swift,  Sterne's  "Tristram 
Shandy  "  and  "  Sentimental  Journey,"  and  the  "  Anti- 
Jacobin  "  by  Canning,  Ellis,  and  Frere. 

An  explanation  has  already  been  given  of  the  title  of 
the  first  among  the  works  above  named.1  Swift  tells  us 
that  it  was  composed  when  "  his  invention  was  at  the 
height,  and  his  reading  fresh  in  his  head."  The  "  Epis- 
tle dedicated  to  Prince  Posterity  "  is  a  fine  piece  of 
irony ;  Dryden  is  maliciously  mentioned  in  it,  as  a  poet 
who,  the  prince  would  be  surprised  to  hear,  had  written 
many  volumes,  and  made  a  noise  among  his  contempo- 
raries. The  tale  itself,  such  as  it  is,  relates  the  adven- 
tures of  the  brothers  Peter,  Martin,2  and  Jack;  and 
with  the  sections  in  which  it  is  carried  on,  other  sec- 
tions alternate,  in  which  the  abuses  of  learning  are 
exposed.  The  three  brothers,  as  the  names  imply,  are 
allegorical,  and  represent  the  Roman  Catholic,  Lu- 
theran, and  Calvinistic  systems  respectively.  The  book 
was  eagerly  read  and  discussed :  a  thing  little  to  be 
wondered  at,  when  a  satire,  expressed  with  inconceiva- 
ble force  and  humor,  and  upon  which  all  the  resources 
of  an  unquestionably  great  genius  had  been  expended, 
was  directed  against  the  religious  belief  and  practice  of 
the  whole  Roman  Catholic,  and  a  large  portion  of  the 
Protestant  world.  But,  though  admired,  it  was  widely 

1  See  p.  257. 

2  That  by  "  Martin  "  Swift  originally  meant  Lutheranism,  and  not 
the  Church  of  England,  seems  clear  from  the  passage  in  the  Fragment 
appended  to  the  work,  where  he  speaks  of  dropping  "the  former 
Martin,"  and  substituting  for  him   "Lady  Bess's  institution,"   by 
which  the  Church  of  England  could  alone  be  meant.     But  it  is  likely 
that  he  was  not  unwilling,  at  a  later  period,  to  have  it  supposed  that 
"  Martin  "  stood  for  the  Church  of  England. 


WORKS    OF    SATIRE,    WIT,    AND    HUMOR.  465 

ndemned.  Smalridge,  a  divine  of  that  age,  when 
taxed  with  the  authorship  by  Sacheverell,  answered 
with  indignation,  "  Not  all  that  you  and  I  have  in  the 
world,  nor  all  that  we  ever  shall  have,  should  hire  me 
to  write  4  The  Tale  of  a  Tub.'  "  Swift  therefore  found 
it  necessary  to  prefix  an  "  Apology  "  to  the  edition  of 
1709,  in  which  he  declared  that  his  meaning  had  been 
misinterpreted  in  many  places,  and  that  his  real  object 
throughout  was  to  serve  pure  religion  and  morality. 
But,  if  this  was  his  object,  he  chose  a  singular  way  of 
promoting  it.  Martin's  proceedings,  which  are  repre- 
sented as  rational  and  right,  are  disposed  of  in  a  page 
and  a  half;  the  rest  of  the  work  consists  of  satirical 
descriptions  of  Peter's  knavery  and  mendacity,  and  of 
Jack's  fanatical  extravagance.  Of  course  the  general 
effect  of  the  book  is  that  of  a  satirical  attack  on  Chris- 
tianity itself.  Voltaire's  strong  approval,  and  recom- 
mendation to  his  followers  to  peruse  it,  are  conclusive 
as  to  the  real  relation  in  which  it  stands  to  religion. 
What  chiefly  delighted  him  was  the  vigor  of  the  attacks 
on  Peter.  These,  though  highly  humorous,  are  coarse, 
and  sometimes  revolting,  particularly  when  it  is  con- 
sidered that  they  came  from  a  clergyman.  They  show 
plainly  enough  that  Swift  was  at  the  time  a  cynic  and 
a  materialist,  and  utterly  scouted  all  religion  in  his 
secret  heart. 

In  "  The  Battle  of  the  Books,"  which,  as  already 
mentioned,  is  Swift's  contribution  to  the  controversy  on 
the  respective  merits  of  classical  and  modern  literature, 
the  ancient  and  modern  books  in  the  Royal  Library  are 
represented  as  engaging  each  other  in  a  pitched  battle. 
The  moderns  march  under  various  leaders,  Cowley  and 
Boileau  commanding  the  light  horse,  and  Descartes  and 
Hobbes  leading  on  the  bowmen ;  but  Milton  and  Shak- 
speare,  indignant  at  the  depreciators  of  their  great  mas- 


466  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

ters,  take  no  part  in  the  fray.  The  Ancients  form  a 
small  and  compact  body,  under  the  command  of  Homer, 
Pindar,  Plato,  &c.  A  humorous  description  of  the  bat- 
tle follows,  which  ends  in  the  moderns  being  routed, 
horse  and  foot.  A  change  of  style  occurs  about  the 
middle  of  the  satire,  and  thence  to  the  end  the  Homeric 
manner  is  parodied  very  amusingly. 

"  The  A nti- Jacobin,"  or  "  Weekly  Examiner,"  estab- 
lished in  1797  by  Canning  and  his  friends,  might  be 
classed,  according  to  its  form,  under  the  head  of  Journal- 
ism ;  but  since  its  professed  object  was  to  chastise  by 
ridicule,  and  so  render  harmless,  the  Jacobinical  root- 
and-branch  aspirations  of  that  portion  of  the  press 
which  had  adopted  the  new  French  principles,  it  is 
properly  classed  among  works  of  satire  and  wit.  In 
performing  this  self-assigned  function,  the  conductors  of 
"  The  Anti-Jacobin "  did  not  mince  matters.  Their 
language  was  as  violent  and  abusive  as  that  of  their 
opponents,  their  accusations  as  sweeping,  and  their  scru- 
pulosity of  assertion  not  much  superior.  But  the  vigor 
and  wit  with  which  they  employed  the  weapons  of  sar- 
casm, irony,  and  parody,  gave  them  a  decided  advantage, 
and  have  gained  for  "  The  Anti-Jacobin  "  a  permanent 
place  in  our  libraries.  Parody  was  used  by  Canning  in 
the  sonnet  upon  Mrs.  Browning,  imitated  from  Southey's 
lines  on  Marten  the  regicide,  and  in  the  famous  ballad 
of  "  The  Needy  Knife-Grinder,"  suggested  by  Southey's 
Sapphics.  The  prose  portion  of  the  paper  contained 
each  week  three  paragraphs  headed  "  Lies,"  "  Misrepre- 
sentations," u  Mistakes,"  in  which  the  corresponding 
delinquencies  of  the  Jacobin  press  during  the  preceding 
week  were  examined  and  castigated.  In  the  second 
volume  Canning  introduced  the  prose  drama  of  "  The 
Rovers ;  or,  the  Double  Arrangement,"  a  capital  bur- 
lesque on  Kotzebue's  plays,  which  were  then  the  rage 


WORKS   OF   SATIRE,   WIT,   AND  HUMOR.  467 

in  England.  The  virtuous  sentiments  and  loose  practice 
of  Kotzebue's  heroes  and  heroines  are  amusingly  exhib- 
ited in  Matilda  and  her  lover.  Matilda's  "  A  thought 
strikes  me  :  let  us  swear  eternal  friendship,"  is  exquisite 
in  its  absurdity. 

Before  speaking  of  works  of  humor,  it  is  necessary, 
in  order  not  to  confound  them  with  works  of  satire,  to 
define  the  term,  "humor"  with  some  strictness.  Humor 
is  a  peculiar  way  of  regarding  persons,  actions,  and 
things,  in  conformity  to  the  peculiar  character  of  the 
humorist.  It  is  to  be  carefully  distinguished  from  wit, 
which  is  the  quick  apprehension  of  relations  between 
dissimilar  ideas ;  such  relations  being  generally  verbal 
rather  than  real.  Humor  looks  beneath  the  surface  ;  it 
does  not  stay  among  the  familiar  outsides  and  semblances 
of  things ;  it  seizes  upon  strange  out-of-the-way  relations 
between  ideas,  which  are  real  rather  than  verbal.  In 
this  it  resembles  imagination ;  and  the  humorist  must, 
indeed,  possess  this  fusing  and  re-uniting  faculty  in  a  high 
degree  ;  but  the  difference  is,  that  the  relations  between 
ideas  which  his  turn  of  mind  leads  him  to  perceive  are 
mostly  odd,  strange  relations,  the  exhibition  of  which, 
while  it  makes  us  thoughtful,  because  the  relations  are 
real,  not  verbal  merely,  awakens  also  our  sense  of  the 
ludicrous.  We  may  take  as  an  illustration  the  strange 
train  of  ideas  in  which  Hamlet  indulges  in  the  scene 
with  the  grave-digger,  when  he  "  traces  in  imagination 
the  noble  dust  of  Alexander,  until  he  finds  it  stopping 
a  bung-hole."  Again,  the  property  which  has  been 
assigned  to  humor,  of  looking  beneath  the  surface, 
involves  the  power  of  detecting  empty  pretension  and 
hypocrisy,  however  carefully  they  may  be  disguised. 
Under  all  the  trappings  and  habiliments  with  which  he 
seeks  to  veil  his  littleness,  the  humorist  still  detects 
the  insignificant  creature,  man  ;  and  delights,  by  homely 


468  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

apologue  or  humiliating  comparison,  to  hold  up  a  mirror 
in  which  he  may  see  himself  as  he  is.  This  is  the  direc- 
tion in  which  the  humorist  approaches  very  near  to  the 
satirist ;  the  distinction  being  that  the  latter  has,  while 
the  former  has  not,  a  definite  moral  purpose,  genuine  or 
assumed,  in  lashing  and  exposing  the  weaknesses  of  man- 
kind. Humor  is  exhibitive,  satire  didactic.  In  humor, 
as  Coleridge  says,  there  is  a  universalising  property. 
Satire,  on  the  contrary,  seizes  upon  different  classes 
of  men,  and  tends  always  to  personality.  It  seems  never 
to  have  quite  lost  the  memory  of  the  scenes  amid  which 
it  had  its  origin,  —  of  the  Fescennine  license,  the  un- 
limited freedom  of  heaping  up  abuse  and  ridicule  upon 
individuals,  which  were  allowed  to  the  Eleusinian  mys- 
tics upon  their  return  from  the  solemn  ceremonies  of 
initiation. 

Sterne,  the  author  of  "  Tristram  Shandy  "  and  "  The 
Sentimental  Journey,"  is  essentially  and  above  all  things 
a  humorist.  "  Tristram  Shandy  "  is  ostensibly  a  fictitious 
narrative ;  but  it  is  really  a  pure  work  of  humor,  the 
narrative  being  destitute  of  plot,  and  the  incidents  only 
serving  to  bring  out  the  humorous  traits  and  notions  of 
the  different  characters  (Mr.  Shandy,  Uncle  Toby,  Cor- 
poral Trim,  &c.),  and  to  give  occasion  to  humorous 
rhapsodies  on  the  part  of  the  author.  In  "  Tristram 
Shandy  "  the  humor  tends  to  the  side  of  satire,  while 
in  "  The  Sentimental  Journey  "  it  tends  to  the  side  of 
sentiment  and  pathos.  The  well-known  episode  on  the 
dead  donkey,  and  the  story  of  the  captive,  exhibit  this 
phase  of  Sterne's  humor.  We  extract  the  former :  — 

"  The  mourner  was  sitting  upon  a  stone  bench  at  the  door,  with  an 
ass's  pannel  and  its  bridle  on  one  side,  which  he  took  up  from  time 
to  time,  then  laid  them  down,  looked  at  them,  and  shook  his  head. 
He  then  took  his  crust  of  bread  out  of  his  wallet  again,  as  if  to  eat 
it,  held  it  some  time  in  his  hand,  then  laid  it  upon  the  bit  of  his  ass's 
bridle,  looked  wistfully  at  the  little  arrangement  he  had  made,  and 


WORKS   OF  SATIRE,   WIT,   AND  HUMOR.  469 

then  gave  a  sigh.  The  simplicity  of  his  grief  drew  numbers  about 
him,  and  La  Fleur  among  the  rest,  whilst  the  horses  were  getting 
ready ;  as  I  continued  sitting  in  the  post-chaise,  I  could  see  and  hear 
over  their  heads. 

"  He  said  he  had  come  last  from  Spain,  where  he  had  been  from  the 
farthest  borders  of  Franconia ;  and  had  got  so  far  on  his  return  home 
when  his  ass  died.  Every  one  seemed  desirous  to  know  what  busi- 
ness could  have  taken  so  old  and  poor  a  man  so  far  a  journey  from 
his  own  home.  It  had  pleased  Heaven,  he  said,  to  bless  him  with 
three  sons,  the  finest  lads  in  all  Germany;  but  having  in  one  week 
lost  two  of  the  eldest  of  them  by  the  small-pox,  and  the  youngest 
falling  ill  of  the  same  distemper,  he  was  afraid  of  being  bereft  of 
them  all,  arid  made  a  vow,  if  Heaven  would  not  take  him  from  him 
also,  he  would  go,  in  gratitude,  to  St.  lago  in  Spain.  When  the 
mourner  got  thus  far  on  his  story,  he  stopped  to  pay  nature  his  trib- 
ute, and  wept  bitterly.  He  said  Heaven  had  accepted  the  conditions, 
and  that  he.had  set  out  from  his  cottage  with  this  poor  creature,  who 
had  been  a  patient  partner  of  his  journey ;  that  it  had  ate  the  same 
bread  with  him  all  the  way,  and  was  unto  him  as  a  friend. 

"  Everybody  who  stood  about  heard  the  poor  fellow  with  concern : 
La  Fleur  offered  him  money.  The  mourner  said  he  did  not  want  it ; 
it  was  not  the  value  of  the  ass,  but  the  loss  of  him.  The  ass,  he 
said,  he  was  assured  loved  him ;  and  upon  this  he  told  them  a  long 
story  of  a  mischance  upon  their  passage  over  the  Pyrenean  Mountains, 
which  had  separated  them  from  each  other  three  days ;  during  which 
time  the  ass  had  sought  him  as  much  as  he  had  sought  the  ass ;  and 
they  had  scarce  either  ate  or  drunk  till  they  met.  *  Thou  hast  one 
comfort,  at  least,'  said  I,  '  in  the  loss  of  thy  poor  beast:  I'm  sure 
thou  hast  been  a  merciful  master  to  him.'  — '  Alas ! '  said  the  mourner, 
*  I  thought  so  when  he  was  alive ;  but,  now  that  he  is  dead,  I  think 
otherwise;  I  fear  the  weight  of  myself  and  my  afflictions  together 
have  been  too  much  for  him ;  they  have  shortened  the  poor  creature's 
days,  and  I  fear  I  have  them  to  answer  for.'  '  Shame  on  the  world ! ' 
said  I  to  myself.  '  Did  we  but  love  each  other  as  this  poor  soul  loved 
his  ass,  'twould  be  something.'  " 

For  pure  wit  Sydney  Smith  stands  unrivalled  among 
English  prose-writers.  He  was  a  sincere  and  earnest 
liberal  in  politics,  inheriting  from  Burke  and  other  lead- 
ing members  of  the  opposition  to  Lord  North's  govern- 
ment the  principles,  some  of  which  they  had  been  the 
first  to  establish,  while  others  were  derived  from  the 
Puritans  of  the  severiteeth  century.  In  religion,  he 

40 


470  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 


takes  up  the  utilitarian,  common-sense,  rationalizing 
tone  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Methodism  is,  in  his 
eyes,  a  miserable  imposture,  a  vulgar  fanaticism ; 
religion,  unless  rich,  respectable,  and  prudent,  unless 
countenanced  by  the  well-educated  and  the  well-to-do 
classes,  presented  itself  to  him  in  the  light  of  a  nui- 
sance rather  than  otherwise.  His  exertions  on  behalf 
of  the  enfranchisement  of  the  Irish  Catholics  ought 
never  to  be  forgotten.  This  question  forms  the  subject 
of  "  Peter  Plymley's  Letters,"  written  in  1807,  in  which 
solid  reasoning  is  conveyed  in  a  form  so  piquant,  so 
irresistibly  witty  and  racy,  that  even  political  opponents 
must  have  read  them  with  delight.  Peter  Plymley 
writes  to  his  brother  Abraham,  the  Protestant  clergy- 
man of  a  country  parish  in  Ireland ;  and,  amongst  other 
things,  disposes  in  the  following  fashion  of  the  charge  — 
not  yet  quite  obsolete  —  which  it  was  then  customary 
to  bring  against  the  Irish  Catholics,  because  they  did 
not,  instead  of  demanding  entire  civil  and  religious 
equality,  overflow  with  gratitude  to  their  rulers  for  the 
partial  relief  which  they  had  already  obtained.  The 
sixth  letter  opens  thus :  — 

"  DEAR  ABRAHAM,  — What  amuses  me  the  most  is  to  hear  of  the 
indulgences  which  the  Catholics  have  received,  and  their  exorbitance 
in  not  being  satisfied  witli  those  indulgences.  Now,  if  you  complain 
to  me  that  a  man  is  obtrusive  and  shameless  in  his  requests,  and  that 
it  is  impossible  to  bring  him  to  reason,  I  must  first  of  all  hear  the 
whole  of  your  conduct  towards  him ;  for  you  may  have  taken  from 
him  so  much  in  the  first  instance,  that,  in  spite  of  a  long  series  of 
restitution,  a  vast  latitude  for  petition  may  still  remain  behind. 

"  There  is  a  village  (no  matter  where)  in  which  the  inhabitants,  on 
one  day  in  the  year,  sit  down  to  a  dinner  prepared  at  the  common 
expense.  By  an  extraordinary  piece  of  tyranny  (which  Lord  Hawkes- 
bury  would  call  the  wisdom  of  the  village  ancestors),  the  inhabitants 
of  three  of  the  streets,  about  a  hundred  years  ago,  seized  upon  the 
inhabitants  of  the  fourth  street,  bound  them  hand  and  foot,  laid 
them  upon  their  backs,  and  compelled  them  to  look  on  while  the  rest 
were  stuffing  themselves  with  beef  and  beer;  the  next  year,  the 


WORKS   OF   SATIRE,    WIT,   AND   HUMOR.  471 

inhabitants  of  the  persecuted  street,  though  they  contributed  an 
equal  quota  of  the  expense,  were  treated  precisely  in  the  same  man- 
ner. The  tyranny  grew  into  a  custom;  and  (as  the  manner  of  our 
nature  is)  it  was  considered  as  the  most  sacred  of  all  duties  to  keep 
these  poor  fellows  without  their  annual  dinner.  The  village  was  so 
tenacious  of  this  practice,  that  nothing  could  induce  them  to  resign 
it;  every  enemy  to  it  was  looked  upon  as  a  disbeliever  in  Divine 
Providence ;  any  nefarious  churchwarden  who  wished  to  succeed  in 
his  election  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  represent  his  antagonist  as  an 
abolitionist,  in  order  to  frustrate  his  ambition,  endanger  his  life,  and 
throw  the  village  into  a  state  of  the  most  dreadful  commotion.  By 
degrees,  however,  the  obnoxious  street  grew  to  be  so  well  peopled, 
and  its  inhabitants  so  firmly  united,  that  their  oppressors,  more 
afraid  of  injustice,  were  more  disposed  to  be  just.  At  the  next  din- 
ner they  are  unbound ;  the  year  after,  allowed  to  sit  upright ;  then  a 
bit  of  bread  and  a  glass  of  water ;  till,  at  last,  after  a  long  series  of 
concessions,  they  are  emboldened  to  ask,  in  pretty  plain  terms,  that 
they  may  be  allowed  to  sit  down  at  the  bottom  of  the  table,  and  to 
fill  their  bellies  as  well  as  the  rest.  Forthwith  a  general  cry  of  shame 
and  scandal :  '  Ten  years  ago,  were  you  not  laid  upon  your  backs  ? 
Don't  you  remember  what  a  great  thing  you  thought  it  to  get  a  piece 
of  bread  ?  How  thankful  you  were  for  cheese-parings !  Have  you 
forgotten  that  memorable  era  when  the  lord  of  the  manor  interfered 
to  obtain  for  you  a  slice  of  the  public  pudding?  And  now,  with  an 
audacity  only  equalled  by  your  ingratitude,  you  have  the  impudence 
to  ask  for  knives  and  forks,  and  to  request,  in  terms  too  plain  to  be 
mistaken,  that  you  may  sit  down  to  table  with  the  rest,  and  be  in- 
dulged even  with  beef  and  beer.  There  are  not  more  than  half  a 
dozen  dishes  which  we  have  reserved  for  ourselves :  the  rest  has  been 
thrown  open  to  you  in  the  utmost  profusion ;  you  have  potatoes  and 
carrots,  suet  dumplings,  sops  in  the  pan,  and  delicious  toast  and 
water,  in  incredible  quantities.  Beef,  mutton,  lamb,  pork,  and  veal 
are  ours;  and,  if  you  were  not  the  most  restless  and  dissatisfied 
of  human  beings,  you  would  never  think  of  aspiring  to  enjoy 
them.' 

"  Is  not  this,  my  dainty  Abraham,  the  very  nonsense  and  the  very 
insult  which  is  talked  to  and  practised  upon  the  Catholics  ?  " 

The  temptation  to  quote  just  one  good  thing  out  of 
the  many  hundreds  which  the  lively  canon  scattered 
around  him  is  irresistible.  It  occurs  in  a  note  to  the 
third  of  these  same  letters  of  Peter  Plymley.  "  Fanat- 
icism," says  Peter,  — 


472  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

''Is  Mr.  Canning's  term  for  the  detection  of  public  abuses,  — a  term 
invented  by  him,  and  adopted  by  that  simious  parasite  who  is  always 
grinning  at  his  heels.  Nature  descends  down  to  infinite  smallness. 
Mr.  Canning  has  his  parasites ;  and  if  you  take  a  large  buzzing  blue- 
bottle fly,  and  look  at  it  in  a  microscope,  you  may  see  twenty  or 
thirty  little  ugly  insects  crawling  about  it,  which  doubtless  think 
their  fly  to  be  the  bluest,  grandest,  merriest,  most  important  animal 
in  the  universe,  and  are  convinced  the  world  would  be  at  an  end  if  it 
ceased  to  buzz." 

3.  Oratory,  Journalism,  Pamphleteering. 

Oratory  is  of  three  kinds, —  that  of  the  pulpit,  that  of 
the  bar,  and  that  of  the  public  assembly,  or  of  the 
tribune,  to  use  a  convenient  French  term. 

When  the  oratory  of  the  pulpit  addresses  itself  to 
questions  purely  religious  and  moral,  or  when  it  inter* 
prets  Scripture,  it  is  called  homiletics,  or  preaching, 
and  must  be  considered  in  connection  with  theology. 
When  it  deals  with  political  questions,  or  celebrates  the 
virtues  of  individuals,  it  becomes  in  the  strict  sense  a 
branch  of  oratory.  The  political  sermon  and  the  funeral 
oration  are  as  much  a  part  of  eloquence  as  the  advo- 
cate's address,  or  the  speech  from  the  hustings ;  the 
chief  difference  lying  in  the  conditions  of  delivery, 
which  give  to  the  pulpit  orator  leisure  for  careful  prepa- 
ration, and  preclude  the  possibility  of  reply. 

In  this  kind  of  oratory  the  great  names  which  France 
can  boast  of  immediately  occur  to  us :  Boucher  and 
the  preachers  of  the  League,  Bossuet,  Bourdaloue,  and 
Massillon.  In  English  literature  we  have  little  that 
requires  notice  but  the  political  sermons  and  funeral 
orations  of  Jeremy  Taylor,  and  some  sermons  by  South. 
Taylor's  sermon  at  the  funeral  of  Archbishop  Bramhall 
has  some  fine  passages;  yet  his  success  in  this  kind  of 
composition  was,  on  the  whole,  inconsiderable. 

The  oratory  of  the  bar  differs  from  that  of  the  pulpit 
and  the  tribune  in  that  the  conditions  under  which  it 


ORATORY.  473 

exists  oblige  it  ordinarily  to  take  for  its  guiding  and 
animating  lights,  not  general  moral  principles,  but 
legal  maxims  and  decisions ;  and,  even  in  cases  where 
an  appeal  to  general  principles  is  admissible,  to  give 
them  always  a  special  and  immediate  application.  A 
certain  relative  inferiority  hence  attaches  to  this  kind 
of  eloquence.  It  is  not  ordinarily  that  of  the  con- 
vinced mind  communicating  its  convictions  to  others 
for  some  high  purpose,  whether  that  be  the  exhibition 
of  pure  truth,  or  the  maintenance  of  the  public  welfare, 
or  at  lowest  the  defence  of  party  principles ;  but  that 
of  the  advocate  whose  single  aim  it  is  to  make  out  his 
case,  and  advance  the  interests  of  his  client.  Excep- 
tional cases,  however  are  not  uncommon  —  as  on  the 
trials  of  eminent  public  men  or  notorious  criminals  — 
in  which  the  advocate  appears  as  the  vindicator  of 
human  or  divine  justice,  and  discharges  a  function  of 
great  dignity.  Of  this  nature  are  the  orations  of  Cicero 
against  Verres  and  Catiline,  and,  among  ourselves,  the 
speeches  of  Burke  on  the  impeachment  of  Warren 
Hastings.  But  the  instances  are  more  common  in 
which  lawyers  in  public  trials  have  been  the  instru- 
ments of  royal  suspicion  or  party  hate.  Never  was 
eloquence  more  shamefully  prostituted  than  by  Coke 
in  his  prosecution  of  Raleigh,  or  by  Bacon  when  he 
appeared  against  his  benefactor  Essex. 

The  oratory  of  the  public  assembly  is  illustrated  in 
English  literature  b$r  a  long  roll  of  historic  names, 
some  of  which  are  not  unlikely  to  rival  in  perpetuity 
of  renown  the  namete  of  the  great  orators  of  antiquity. 
Far  above  all  others  rises  the  eloquence  of  Burke.  The 
following  extract  from  his  "  Speech  at  Bristol  previous 
to  the  Election"  in  1780  refers  to  the  demoralizing 
effects  of  the  penal  laws  against  the  Catholics  :  — 

40* 


474  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

"  In  this  situation  men  not  only  shrink  from  the  frowns  of  a  stern 
magistrate,  but  they  are  obliged  to  fly  from  their  very  species.  The 
seeds  of  destruction  are  sown  in  civil  intercourse,  in  social  habitudes. 
The  blood  of  wholesome  kindred  is  infected.  Their  tables  and  beds 
are  surrounded  with  snares.  All  the  means  given  by  Providence  to 
make  life  safe  and  comfortable  are  perverted  into  instruments  of 
terror  and  torment.  This  species  of  universal  subserviency,  that 
makes  the  very  servant  who  waits  behind  your  chair  the  arbiter  of 
your  life  and  fortune,  has  such  a  tendency  to  degrade  and  abase  man- 
kind, and  to  deprive  them  of  that  assured  and  liberal  state  of  mind 
which  alone  can  make  us  what  we  ought  to  be,  that  I  vow  to  God  I 
would  sooner  bring  myself  to  put  a  man  to  immediate  death  for 
opinions  I  disliked,  and  so  to  get  rid  of  the  man  and  his  opinions  at 
once,  than  to  fret  him  with  a  feverish  being,  tainted  with  the  jail 
distemper  of  a  contagious  servitude,  to  keep  him  above  ground  an 
animated  mass  of  putrefaction,  corrupted  himself,  and  corrupting  all 
about  him." 

The  eulogium  upon  Sir  George  S  a  vile,  a  little  farther 
on,  has  a  terse  and  classic  turn  of  expression,  which 
our  language,  from  its  want  of  inflections,  has  rarely 
attained  to :  — 

"  I  hope  that  few  things  which  have  a  tendency  to  bless  or  to  adorn 
life  have  wholly  escaped  my  observation  in  my  passage  through  it. 
I  have  sought  the  acquaintance  of  that  gentleman,  and  have  seen 
him  in  all  situations.  He  is  a  true  genius,  with  an  understanding 
vigorous  and  acute  and  refined  and  distinguishing  even  to  excess; 
and  illuminated  with  a  most  unbounded,  peculiar,  and  original  cast 
of  imagination.  With  these  he  possesses  many  external  and  instru- 
mental advantages ;  and  he  makes  use  of  them  all.  His  fortune  is 
among  the  largest,  —  a  fortune  which  wholly  unincumbered  as  it  is 
with  one  single  charge  from  luxury,  vanity,  or  excess,  sinks  under 
the  benevolence  of  its  dispenser.  This  private  benevolence,  expand- 
ing itself  into  patriotism,  renders  his  whole  being  the  estate  of  the 
public,  in  which  he  has  not  reserved  a  peculium  for  himself  of  profit, 
diversion,  or  relaxation.  During  the  session,  the  first  in  and  the 
last  out  of  the  House  of  Commons,  he  passes  from  the  senate  to  the 
camp ;  and,  seldom  seeing  the  seat  of  his  ancestors,  he  is  always  in 
the  senate  to  serve  his  country,  or  in  the  field  to  defend  it." 

The  function  of  the  journalist  so  far  resembles  that 
of  the  orator,  that  his  object  also  is  to  produce  imme- 


JOURNALISM.  475 

diate  conviction  or  persuasion,  with  a  view  to  action. 
But  he  speaks  to  his  audience  through  the  broad  sheet, 
not  by  word  of  mouth.  The  extensive  use  of  this 
mode  of  address  in  modern  times  is  attributable  partly 
to  the  populousness  and  geographical  extent  of  modern 
communities,  partly  to  the  increased  diffusion  of  a  certain 
grade  of  culture,  partly  also  to  the  invention  of  a  variety 
of  mechanical  contrivances,  met  by  corresponding  social 
arrangements,  by  which  the  journalist  is  enabled  to 
address  his  readers  at  regular  and  brief  intervals.  At 
Athens  the  sovereign  people  all  resided  within  easy 
reach  of  the  Pnyx  or  the  Dionysiac  theatre,  so  that  the 
orators  who  led  them  could  reach  them  through  their 
ears,  and  were  not  compelled,  like  our  journalists,  to 
appeal  to  citizens  living  at  a  distance,  through  the  eye. 
It  must  be  noted  that  the  journalist,  and  the  circulator 
of  news,  though  the  two  offices  are  usually  combined 
in  practice,  have  distinct  functions  in  theory.  News- 
papers originated,  as  the  name  itself  implies,  in  the 
attempt  to  discharge  the  humbler  office,  that  of  collect- 
ing and  disseminating  news.  But  as  the  demand  for 
correct  and  frequent  intelligence  increased,  and  the 
means  of  supplying  it  were  also  multiplied,  the  con- 
ductors of  newspapers  naturally  seized  the  opportunity 
thus  afforded  them  of  accompanying  their  news  with 
their  own  comments  and  explanations.  It  is  from  the 
power  and  social  influence  which  the  able  use  of  these 
opportunities  has  secured  to  it,  that  the  newspaper 
press  has  received  the  name  of  the  Fourth  Estate,  and 
that  journalism  has  almost  risen  to  the  dignity  of  a 
profession.  At  the  present  day  the  journalist  some- 
times discards  the  business  of  a  circulator  of  news 
altogether,  as  in  the  instance  of  "  The  Saturday 
Review."  The  newspaper,  as  originally  understood,  is 
now  represented  only  by  government  and  mercantile 


476  HISTOEY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

The  pamphlet,  whether  its  ends  be  political  or  politi- 
co-religious, is  equivalent  to  an  elaborate  speech,  which 
by  means  of  the  printing-press  obtains  a  diffusion 
immeasurably  exceeding  that  which  oral  delivery  can 
accomplish.  In  a  country  where  the  press  is  free,  this 
indirect  kind  of  oratory  is  sure  to  be  largely  resorted 
to,  especially  in  times  of  political  agitation  ;  and  many 
an  eager  political  theorist,  whom  compulsory  silence 
would  have  turned  into  a  conspirator,  has  relieved  his 
excitement  by  writing,  and  proved  innocuous  as  a 
pamphleteer.  The  civil  war  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
the  reign  of  Anne,  and  the  fifty  years  terminating  in 
1835,  are  the  periods  at  which  pamphleteering  has  most 
flourished  amongst  us.  We  will  give  a  specimen  from 
a  work  of  each  period.  Few  pamphlets  composed  in 
the  first  have  much  literary  value,  except  the  politico- 
religious  tracts  of  Milton.  The  following  extract  forms 
a  portion  of  his  eulogy  upon  the  Long  Parliament  in 
the  "  Apology  for  Smectymnuus :  "  — 

"  With  such  a  majesty  had  their  wisdom  begirt  itself,  that  whereas 
others  had  levied  war  to  subdue  a  nation  that  sought  for  peace,  they 
sitting  here  in  peace  could  so  many  miles  extend  the  force  of  their 
single  words  as  to  overawe  the  dissolute  stoutness  of  an  armed  power, 
secretly  stirred  up  and  almost  hired  against  them.  And  having  by  a 
solemn  protestation  vowed  themselves  and  the  kingdom  anew  to  God 
and  his  service,  and,  by  a  prudent  foresight  above  what  their  fathers 
thought  on,  prevented  the  dissolution  and  frustration  of  their  designs 
by  an  untimely  breaking-up;  notwithstanding  all  the  treasonous  plots 
against  them,  all  the  rumors  either  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  they 
have  not  been  yet  brought  to  change  their  constant  resolution,  ever 
to  think  fearlessly  of  their  own  safeties,  and  hopefully  of  the 
commonwealth ;  which  hath  gained  them  such  an  admiration  from 
all  good  men  that  now  they  hear  it  as  their  ordinary  surname  to  be 
saluted  the  fathers  of  their  country,  and  sit  as  gods  among  daily 
petitions  and  public  thanks  flowing  in  upon  them.  Which  doth  so 
little  yet  exalt  them  in  their  own  thoughts  th?f  with  all  sw)t>  affa- 
bility and  courteous  acceptance  tiiey  both  receive  ana  return  that 
tribute  of  thanks,  w>ucn  io  tendered  them,  testifying  their  zeal  and 
desire  to  spend  themselves,  as  it  were,  piecemeal  upon  the  grievances 


PAMPHLETEERING.  477 

and  wrongs  of  their  distressed  nation;  insomuch  that  the  meanest 
artisans  and  laborers,  at  other  times  also  women,  and  often  the 
younger  sort  of  servants,  assembling  with  their  complaints,  and  that 
sometimes  in  a  less  humble  guise  than  for  petitioners,  have  come 
with  confidence  that  neither  their  meanness  would  be  rejected,  nor 
their  simplicity  contemned,  nor  yet  their  urgency  distasted,  either  by 
the  dignity,  wisdom,  or  moderation  of  that  supreme  senate :  nor  did 
they  depart  unsatisfied." 

The  next  extract  is  from  Swift's  "  Conduct  of  the 
Allies,"  a  pamphlet  published  in  1712.  By  the  "  reign- 
ing favorites  "  are  meant  Godolphin  and  the  Duke  and 
Duchess  of  Marlborough.  The  war  of  the  Spanish  suc- 
cession was  now  practically  over ;  the  ministry  which  car- 
ried it  on  had  been  dismissed ;  and  Swift's  object  was  to 
reconcile  men's  minds  to  the  peace  which  the  new  min- 
istry were  endeavoring  to  negotiate,  by  enlarging  on  the 
wasteful  and  corrupt  manner  in  which  the  nation  had 
been  plunged  in  debt  in  order  to  carry  on  a  war  which 
benefited  only  the  allies,  the  English  general,  and  the 
capitalists. 

"  But,  when  the  war  was  thus  begun,  there  soon  fell  in  other  inci- 
dents here  at  home,  which  made  the  continuance  of  it  necessary  for 
those  who  were  the  chief  advisers.  The  Whigs  were  at  that  time  out 
of  all  credit  or  consideration :  the  reigning  favorites  had  always  car- 
ried what  was  called  the  Tory  principle  at  least  as  high  as  our  consti- 
tution could  bear,  arid  most  others  in  great  employments  were  wholly 
in  the  Church  interest.  These  last,  among  whom  several  were  per- 
sons of  the  greatest  merit,  quality,  and  consequence,  were  not  able  to 
endure  the  many  instances  of  pride,  insolence,  avarice,  and  ambition 
which  those  favorites  began  so  early  to  discover,  nor  to  see  them  pre- 
suming to  be  the  sole  dispensers  of  the  royal  favor.  However,  their 
opposition  was  to  no  purpose :  they  wrestled  with  too  great  a  power, 
and  were  soon  crushed  under  it.  For  those  in  possession,  finding 
they  could  never  be  quiet  in  their  usurpations  while  others  had  any 
credit  who  were  at  least  upon  an  equal  foot  of  merit,  began  to  make 
overtures  to  the  discarded  Whigs,  who  would  be  content  with  any 
terms  of  accommodation.  Thus  commenced  this  Solemn  League  and 
Covenant,  which  hath  ever  since  been  cultivated  with  so  much  zeal 
and  application.  The  great  traders  in  money  were  wholly  devoted  to 
the  Whigs,  who  had  first  raised  them.  The  army,  the  court,  and  the 


478  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

treasury  continued  under  the  old  despotic  administration :  the  Whigs 
were  received  into  employment,  left  to  manage  the  parliament,  cry 
down  the  landed  interest,  and  worry  the  Church.  Meantime  our  allies, 
who  were  not  ignorant  that  all  this  artificial  structure  had  no  true 
foundation  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  resolved  to  make  their  best  use 
of  it  as  long  as  it  should  last.  And,  the  general's  credit  being  raised 
to  a  great  height  at  home  by  our  success  at  Flanders,  the  Dutch  began 
their  gradual  impositions,  lessening  their  quotas,  breaking  their  stipu- 
lations, garrisoning  the  towns  we  took  for  them,  without  supplying 
their  troops,  with  many  other  infringements;  all  which  we  were 
forced  to  submit  to,  because  the  general  was  made  easy,  because  the 
moneyed  men  at  home  were  fond  of  the  war,  because  the  Whigs  were 
not  yet  firmly  settled,  and  because  the  exorbitant  degree  of  power 
which  was  built  upon  a  supposed  necessity  of  employing  particular 
persons  would  go  off  in  a  peace.  It  is  needless  to  add  that  the  em- 
peror and  other  princes  followed  the  example  of  the  Dutch,  and  suc- 
ceeded as  well  for  the  same  reasons." 

Among  the  innumerable  tracts  and  pamphlets  pro- 
duced in  the  third  period,  the  following  passage  is 
selected  almost  at  random.  It  is  from  a  pamphlet 
written  by  Lord  Byron  in  1821,  in  the  form  of  a  letter 
to  a  friend  in  England,  examining  the  Rev.  W.  Bowles's 
strictures  on  the  life  and  writings  of  Pope.  The  pas- 
sage is  interesting,  as  embodying  one  great  poet's 
deliberate  estimate  of  another  :  — 

"  Of  Pope  I  have  expressed  my  opinion  elsewhere,  as  also  of  the 
effects  which  the  present  attempts  at  poetry  have  had  upon  our  litera- 
ture. If  any  great  national  or  natural  convulsion  could  or  should 
overwhelm  your  country  in  such  sort  as  to  sweep  Great  Britain  from 
the  kingdoms  of  the  earth,  and  leave  only  that,  after  all,  the  most 
living  of  human  things,  — a  dead  language,  —  to  be  studied  and  read 
and  imitated  by  the  wise  of  future  and  far  generations  upon  foreign 
shores;  if  your  literature  should  become  the  learning  of  mankind, 
divested  of  party  cabals,  temporary  fashions,  and  national  pride  and 
prejudice,  —  an  Englishman,  anxious  that  the  posterity  of  strangers 
should  know  that  there  had  been  such  a  thing  as  a  British  epic  and 
tragedy,  might  wish  for  the  preservation  of  Shakspeare  and  Milton ; 
but  the  surviving  world  would  snatch  Pope  from  the  wreck,  and  let 
the  rest  sink  with  the  people.  He  is  the  only  poet  that  never  shocks, 
the  only  poet  whose  faultlessness  has  been  made  his  reproach.  Cast 
your  eye  over  his  productions;  consider  their  extent,  and  contemplate 
their  variety,  —  pastoral,  passion,  mock-heroic,  translation,  satire, 
ethics:  all  excellent,  and  often  perfect." 


HISTORY.  479 

4.  History,   Contemporary   and  Retrospective. 

Under  this  general  heading  we  include  true  narratives 
of  all  kinds.  For  the  faithful  record  of  any  actual 
human  experience  whatever  may  be  regarded  as  a 
work  subsidiary  to,  and  promotive  of,  the  end  of  history 
proper;  which  is,  the  representation  of  the  evolution 
either  of  the  general  life  of  mankind  (universal  history), 
or  of  the  life  of  some  one  nation  in  particular.  Biogra- 
phy of  every  description  is  thus  included  among  the 
departments  subsidiary  to  history.  Indeed,  it  has  been 
proved  by  some  late  brilliant  examples  (rh  the  case  of 
Macaulay's  England,  for  instance),  that  the  historian 
who  rightly  understands  his  business  can  glean  nearly 
as  much  material  suitable  for  his  purpose  from  the  lives 
of  private  persons,  as  from  those  of  princes,  statesmen, 
or  generals.  Accounts  of  voyages  and  travels  are  also, 
though  more  remotely,  subsidiary  to  history.  The  ob- 
servations of  an  intelligent  traveller  in  civilized  countries 
are  obviously  of  the  highest  value  to  the  historian. 
Arthur  Young's  "  Travels  in  France  before  the  Revo- 
lution," and  Laing's  "  Notes  of  a  Traveller,"  are  cases 
in  point.  And  even  the  descriptions  given  by  the  first 
explorers  of  wild  uninhabited  regions  are  subsidiary  te 
the  history  of  later  generations.  To  the  historian  of 
America,  the  narrative  of  Raleigh's  blind  and  struggling 
progress  along  the  swampy  coasts  of  North  Carolina, 
while  engaged  in  laying  the  foundations  of  the  colony 
of  Virginia,  cannot  fail  to  be  of  the  highest  use  and 
interest.  So,  when  the  history  of  the  Australian  colonies 
comes  to  be  written,  the  works  of  Mitchell,  Sturt,  Grey, 
Leichhardt,  and  other  hardy  explorers,  will  assuredly 
furnish  a  large  portion  of  the  matter  of  its  introductory 
chapters. 

History  proper  is  of  two  kinds :  1,  contemporary ;  2, 
retrospective  or  reflective.  A  third  kind  —  philosophi- 


480  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

cal  history  —  has  been  added  by  some  German  meta- 
physicians.1 By  this  is  meant  the  scientific  exhibition 
of  the  manner  in  which  the  state  of  human  society 
in  any  given  generation  inevitably  causes,  through  the 
operation  of  physical  laws,  the  state  of  society  found  in 
the  next  generation.  As,  however,  the  life  of  a  nation 
or  of  the  race  is  evolved  by  human  actions,  and  it  has 
not  yet  been  proved,  however  confidently  asserted,  by 
these  philosophers,  that  such  actions  are  subject  to  phy- 
sical necessity  (in  other  words,  that  the  human  will  is 
not  free),  those  who  believe  in  the  opposite  doctrines  of 
responsibil  ity  and  free-will  will  not  be  disposed  to  admit 
the  possibility  of  history  being  correctly  written  upon 
such  an  hypothesis. 

1.  Under  the  description  of  contemporary  history  are 
comprised,  in  English  literature,  many  works  which  from 
the  literary  point  of  view  are  nearly  worthless,  together 
with  a  few  which  are  of  rare  excellence.  The  former 
character  applies  to  the  contemporary  portions  of  our 
old  English  chronicles,  —  Fabyan,  Hall,  Grafton,  Holin- 
shed,  Stowe,  &c.  Ludlow's  and  Whitlocke's  "  Memoirs," 
relating  to  the  civil  war  of  Charles  I.'s  time,  though 
much  superior  to  these,  are  flat  in  style,  and  dull  through 
deficiency  of  descriptive  power.  Clarendon's  "  History 
of  the  Great  Rebellion"  is  the  most  perfect  contemporary 
history  that  we  possess ;  next  to  it  may  be  named  Bur- 
net's  "  History  of  his  Own  Times,"  and  Horace  Wai- 
pole's  "  Memoirs  of  the  Last  Ten  Years  of  the  Reign 
of  George  II." 

Clarendon's  history  is  a  work  with  which  the  student 
of  our  literature  should  make  himself  familiar.  It  is, 
indeed,  very  long ;  but  the  theme  is  one  so  deeply  inter- 
esting, and  the  revolution  which  it  records  has  so  deci- 
sively influenced  the  whole  course  of  our  history  down 

1  See  Hegel's  Philosophic  der  Geschichte. 


HISTORY.  481 

to  the  present  day,  that  he  may  be  excused  for  spending 
some  time  over  it.  There  are  many  digressions,  too 
(Clarendon  is  partial  to  them),  which  if  necessary  may 
be  omitted.  Of  course  the  book  is  not  impartial,  or 
entirely  trustworthy ;  for,  not  only  was  the  author  a  keen 
partisan  on  the  royalist  side :  he  was  also  a  lawyer,  and 
had  a  legal  turn  of  mind,  and  was  thence  disqualified  to 
a  certain  degree  from  weighing  the  conduct  and  aims  of 
the  different  parties  in  even  scales.  The  Puritans  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  Roman  Catholics  on  the  other, 
were  pursuing  objects  which  the  law  of  the  land,  in 
establishing  the  Church  of  England,  had  condemned ; 
and  this  is  reason  enough  with  Clarendon  for  branding 
those  objects  as  bad,  and  their  pursuit  as  criminal.  For 
instance,  he  thus  speaks  of  the  infamous  sentence  passed 
on  Prynne  and  his  fellow-sufferers,  referred  to  above,  at 
p.  155  :  — 

"  These  three  persons  (Prynne,  Bastwick,  and  Burton)  having  been, 
for  several  follies  and  libelling  humors,  first  gently  reprehended,  and 
after,  for  their  incorrigibleness,  more  severely  censured  and  impris- 
oned, found  some  means  in  prison  of  correspondence,  which  was  not 
before  known  to  be  between  them;  and  to  combine  themselves  in  a 
more  pestilent  and  seditious  libel  than  they  had  ever  before  vented ; 
in  which  the  honor  of  the  king,  queen,  counsellors,  and  bishops  was 
with  equal  license  blasted  and  traduced ;  which  was  faithfully  dis- 
persed by  their  proselytes  in  the  city.  The  authors  were  quickly  and 
easily  known,  and  had,  indeed,  too  much  ingenuity  to  deny  it,  and 
were  thereupon  brought  together  to  the  Star  Chamber,  ore  tenus, 
where  they  behaved  themselves  with  marvellous  insolence,  with  full 
confidence  demanding  'that  the  bishops  who  sat  in  the  court'  (being 
only  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  bishop  of  London)  '  might 
not  be  present,  because  they  were  their  enemies,  and  so  parties ; ' 
which,  how  scandalous  and  ridiculous  soever  it  seemed  then  there, 
was  good  logic  arid  good  law  two  years  after  in  Scotland,  and  served 
to  banish  the  bishops  of  that  kingdom  both  from  the  council  table 
and  the  assembly.  Upon  a  very  patient  and  solemn  hearing,  in  as  full 
a  court  as  ever  I  saw  in  that  place,  without  any  difference  in  opinion 
or  dissenting  voice,  they  were  all  three  censured  as  scandalous,  sedi- 
tious, and  infamous  persons,  *  to  lose  their  ears  in  the  pillory,  and  to 
be  imprisoned  in  several  jails  during  the  king's  pleasure; '  all  which 
was  executed  with  rigor  and  severity  enough. 


482  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

But  whatever  defects,  whether  of  matter  or  manner, 
may  be  alleged  against  this  work,  the  style  is  so  attrac- 
tive,—  has  such  an  equable,  easy,  and  dignified  flow, — 
that  it  can  never  cease  to  be  popular.  Perhaps  Claren- 
don's greatest  merit  is  his  skill  in  character-drawing. 
Take,  for  example,  the  character  of  Hampden  : — - 

"  He  was  a  gentleman  of  good  family  in  Buckinghamshire,  and  bom 
to  a  fair  fortune,  and  of  a  most  civil  and  affable  demeanor.  In  his 
entrance  into  the  world  he  indulged  to  himself  all  the  license  in 
sports,  and  exercises,  and  company,  which  was  used  by  men  of  the 
most  jolly  conversation.  Afterwards  he  retired  to  a  more  reserved 
and  melancholy  society,  yet  preserving  his  own  natural  cheerfulness 
and  vivacity,  and,  above  all,  a  flowing  courtesy  to  all  men.  Though 
they  who  conversed  nearly  with  him  found  him  growing  into  a  dis- 
like of  the  ecclesiastical  government  of  the  Church,  yet  most  believed 
it  rather  a  dislike  of  some  churchmen,  and  of  some  introducements 
of  theirs,  which  he  apprehended  might  disquiet  the  public  peace. 
He  was  rather  of  reputation  in  his  own  country  than  of  public  dis- 
course or  fame  in  tin-  kingdom,  before  the  business  of  ship-money; 
but  then  he  grew  the  argument  of  all  tongues,  every  man  inquiring 
who  and  what  he  was  that  durst,  at  his  own  charge,  support  the  lib- 
erty and  property  of  the  kingdom,  and  rescue  his  country,  as  he 
thought,  from  being  made  a  prey  to  the  court.  His  carriage  through- 
out this  agitation  was  with  that  rare  temper  and  modesty,  that  they 
who  watched  him  narrowly  to  find  some  advantage  against  his  person, 
to  make  him  less  resolute  in  his  cause,  were  compelled  to  give  him  a 
just  testimony.  And  the  judgment  that  was  given  against  him  infi- 
nitely more*  advanced  him  than  the  service  for  which  it  was  given. 
When  this  parliament  began  (being  returned  knight  of  the  shire  for 
the  county  where  he  lived),  the  eyes  of  all  men  were  fixed  on  him  as 
their  patriot  pater,  and  the  pilot  that  must  steer  the  vessel  through  the 
tempests  and  rocks  which  threatened  it.  And  I  am  persuaded  his 
power  and  interest  at  that  time  was  greater  to  do  good  or  hurt  than 
any  man's  in  the  kingdom,  or  than  any  man  in  his  rank  hath  had  in 
any  time ;  for  his  reputation  of  honesty  was  universal,  and  his  affec- 
tions seemed  so  publicly  guided  that  no  corrupt  or  private  ends  could 
bias  them. 

After  he  was  among  those  members  accused  by  the  king  of  high 
treason,  he  was  much  altered ;  his  nature  and  carriage  seeming  much 
fiercer  than  it  did  before.  And,  without  question,  when  he  first  drew 
the  sword  he  threw  away  the  scabbard;  for  he  passionately  opposed 
the  overture  made  by  the  king  for  a  treaty  from  Nottingham,  and,  as 


HISTORY.  483 

eminently,  any  expedients  that  might  have  produced  any  accommo- 
dations in  this  that  was  at  Oxford ;  and  was  principally  relied  on  to 
prevent  any  infusions  which  might  be  made  into  the  Earl  of  Essex 
towards  peace,  or  to  render  them  ineffectual  if  they  were  made ;  and 
was,  indeed,  much  more  relied  on  by  that  party  than  the  general  him- 
self. In  the  first  entrance  into  the  troubles  he  undertook  the  com- 
mand of  a  regiment  of  foot,  and  performed  the  duty  of  a  colonel  on 
all  occasions  most  punctually.  He  was  very  temperate  in  diet,  and  a 
supreme  governor  over  all  his  passions  and  affections,  and  had  there- 
by a  great  power  over  other  men's.  He  was  of  an  industry  and  vigi- 
lance not  to  be  tired  out  or  wearied  by  the  most  laborious,  and  of 
parts  not  to  be  imposed  upon  by  the  most  subtle  or  sharp,  and  of  a 
personal  courage  equal  to  his  best  parts ;  so  that  he  was  an  enemy  not 
to  be  wished  wherever  he  might  have  been  made  a  friend,  and  as 
much  to  be  apprehended  where  he  was  so  as  any  man  could  deserve 
to  be.  And  therefore  his  death  was  no  less  pleasing  to  the  one  party 
than  it  was  condoled  in  the  other.  In  a  word,  what  was  said  of  China 
might  well  be  applied  to  him,  — "  He  had  a  head  to  contrive,  and  a 
tongue  to  persuade,  and  a  hand  to  execute,  any  mischief."  His 
death,  therefore,  seemed  to  be  a  great  deliverance  to  the  nation." 

Burnet's  "  Own  Times  "  is  a  work  that  is  full  of  in- 
accuracies, and  does  not  rise  above  the  level  of  a  plain 
conversational  style ;  it,  however,  throws  much  valuable 
light  on  the  history  of  civil  transactions  in  England 
and  Scotland  during  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  This  writer  also  is  graphic,  and  probably 
faithful,  in  his  delineations  of  character. 

Horace  Walpole,  son  of  the  Whig  statesman  Sir 
Robert  Walpole,  had  a  near  view  during  his  long  life 
of  the  secret  machinery  by  which  the  state  policy  of 
Britain  was  set  in  motion ;  and  we  have  the  results  of 
his  observation  in  his  "  Memoirs  "  above  mentioned,  as 
well  as  in  the  lively  and  lengthy  series  of  his  "  Let- 
ters." But  Horace,  though  polished  and  keen,  is  by  no 
means  a  genial  writer :  selfish  himself,  he  did  not  much 
believe  in  human  disinterestedness;  and,  without  the 
large  intellectual  grasp  of  Gibbon,  he  was  destitute  of 
those  strong  human  sympathies  and  antipathies  which 
impart  a  certain  interest  to  the  works  of  much  inferior 
men. 


184  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

2.  Retrospective  history  may  be  either  legendary  or 
evidential ;  by  which  is  meant,  history,  the  statements 
of  which  on  matters  of  fact  rest  on  probable  moral  evi- 
dence. The  legendary  history  relates  events  supposed 
to  occur  at  distant  periods,  the  evidence  for  which  is 
mere  popular  tradition.  In  such  a  history,  no  event,  or 
jonnection  of  events,  no  names  or  genealogies,  can  be 
accepted  as  accurately  corresponding  to  reality.  Yet  as 
there  are  usually  certain  grains  of  historic  truth  deduci- 
ble  from  even  the  most  imaginative  of  these  histories, 
and  as  the  writers  at  any  rate  suppose  themselves  to  be 
relaters  of  fact,  not  fiction,  the  reader  must  not  confound 
this  class  of  works  with  fictitious  narratives.  Geoffrey 
of  Monmouth's  "  Historia  Britonum  "  is  a  pure  legend- 
ary history.  All  the  old  English  chroniclers  begin  their 
histories  just  as  Livy  does,  with  legendary  recitals,  of 
which  Geoffrey's  work  is  the  principal  source.  In  most 
of  them  a  portion  of  retrospective  history  succeeds,  com- 
piled from  the  writings  of  their  predecessors.  This  is 
followed  by  the  narrative  of  contemporary  events, 
which  is  usually  the  only  portion  of  such  works  that 
has  any  value. 

Retrospective  histories  of  the  evidential  class  proceed 
upon  the  same  principles,  whether  they  treat  of  ancient 
or  of  modern  civilization.  The  same  critical  rules  are 
appealed  to  in  each  case  for  the  purpose  of  testing  the 
credibility  of  the  witnesses,  ascertaining  the  dates,  or 
other  circumstances  connected  with  the  composition  of 
documents ;  in  short,  for  accomplishing  the  great  end 
of  this  kind  of  historical  writing,  which  is  to  paint  a 
past  age  as  it  really  was.  We  proceed  to  notice  the 
chief  works  of  this  class  in  English  literature,  proceed- 
ing from  ancient  to  modern  history. 

"  The  History  of  the  World,"  by  Raleigh,  professes 
to  describe  the  course  of  events  in  the  chief  countries 


HISTORY.  485 

of  the  ancient  world,  from  the  Creation  to  the  fall  of 
the  Macedonian  kingdom  in  168  B.C.  Some  account 
of  the  manner  in  which  the  design  is  executed  has  been 
given  at  a  previous  page.1  The  most  remarkable  pas- 
sages are  those  in  which  the  chivalrous  old  campaigner 
illustrates  the  details  of  Macedonian  or  Roman  battles, 
by  referring  to  scenes  in  his  own  varied  and  turbulent 
life.  Now  and  then  the  style  rises  to  a  very  clear  and 
noble  strain,  as  in  the  following  sentences,  with  which 
the  work  concludes :  — 

"  By  this,  which  we  have  already  set  down,  is  seen  the  beginning 
and  end  of  the  three  first  monarchies  of  the  world,  whereof  the  found- 
ers and  erecters  thought  that  they  could  never  have  ended.  That 
of  Rome,  which  made  the  fourth,  was  also  at  this  time  almost  at  the 
highest.  We  have  left  it  nourishing  in  the  middle  of  the  field,  having 
rooted  up  or  cut  down  all  that  kept  it  from  the  eyes  and  admiration 
of  the  world ;  but,  after  some  continuance,  it  shall  begin  to  lose  the 
beauty  it  had ;  the  storms  of  ambition  shall  beat  her  great  boughs 
and  branches  one  against  another,  her  leaves  shall  fall  off,  her  limbs 
wither,  and  a  rabble  of  barbarous  nations  enter  the  field,  and  cut  her 
down. 

"  For  the  rest,  if  we  seek  a  reason  of  the  succession  and  continu- 
ance of  this  boundless  ambition  in  mortal  men,  we  may  add  to  that 
which  hath  been  already  said,  that  the  kings  and  princes  of  the  world 
have  always  laid  before  them  the  actions,  but  not  the  ends,  of  those 
great  ones  which  preceded  them.  They  are  always  transported  with 
the  glory  of  the  one;  but  they  nevermind  the  misery  of  the  other,  till 
they  find  the  experience  in  themselves.  They  neglect  the  advice  of 
God,  while  they  enjoy  life,  or  hope  it ;  but  they  follow  the  counsel 
of  Death  upon  his  first  approach.  It  is  he  that  puts  into  man  all  the 
wisdom  of  the  world,  without  speaking  a  word,  which  God,  with  all 
the  words  of  his  law,  promises,  or  threats,  doth  not  infuse.  Death, 
which  hateth  and  destroyeth  man,  is  believed:  God,  which  hath  made 
him,  and  loves  him,  is  always  deferred.  '  I  have  considered,'  saith 
Solomon,  '  all  the  works  that  are  under  the  sun,  and,  behold,  all  is 
vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit ; '  but  who  believes  it  till  Death  tells  it  us  ? 
.  .  .  O  eloquent,  just,  and  mighty  Death !  whom  none  could  advise, 
thou  hast  persuaded ;  what  none  hath  dared,  thou  hast  done ;  and, 

i  See  p.  130. 
41* 


486  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

whom  all  the  world  hath  flattered,  thou  only  hast  cast  out  of  the 
world  and  despised ;  thou  hast  drawn  together  all  the  far-stretched 
greatness,  all  the  pride,  cruelty,  and  ambition  of  man,  and  covered  it 
all  over  with  these  two  narrow  words,  Hie  jacet  I " 

Mr.  Mitford  was  the  first  Englishman  who  attempted, 
in  emulation  of  Gibbon,  to  write  at  length  the  history 
of  Greece.  Dr.  Thirl  wall  and  Mr.  Grote  have  followed 
more  ably  and  exhaustively  over  the  same  ground  ;  but 
as  we  do  not  propose  to  comment  upon  works  by 
authors  living,  or  lately  deceased,  we  abstain  from  the 
attempt  to  describe  or  appreciate  their  labors. 

In  Roman  history,  Hooke,  the  friend  of  Pope,  was 
first  in  the  field  ;  and  to  him  succeeded  Dr.  Ferguson, 
with  his  dry  book  on  the  Roman  republic. 

The  vast  sweep  taken  in  "  The  Decline  and  Fall 
of  the  Roman  Empire  "  exhibits  Gibbon's  wonderful 
capacity,  not  only  for  mastering  and  reproducing  the 
sequence  and  connection  of  events  through  a  long  and 
obscure  period  in  the  principal  countries  of  Europe 
and  Asia,  but  also  for  dealing  with  what  may  be  called 
the  statics  of  the  subject  in  those  detailed,  consistent, 
and  luminous  pictures  which  he  draws  of  the  state  of 
society  as  existing  in  a  particular  country  at  a  particu- 
lar time.  The  main  body  of  the  work  commences  with 
the  reign  of  Trajan  (A.D.  98),  and  ends  with  the  fall 
of  the  Eastern  empire  (A.D.  1453)  ;  but  three  supple- 
mentary chapters  "  review  the  state  and  revolutions  of 
the  Roman  city "  (to  which,  it  will  be  remembered, 
Gibbon  had  limited  his  original  design)  from  the 
twelfth  to  the  sixteenth  century.  But,  though  it  is 
difficult  to  speak  too  highly  of  the  genius  displayed  in 
this  memorable  work,  it  must  be  added  that  the  fidelity 
of  the  historical  picture  which  it  exhibits  is  greatly 
marred  by  the  Sadducean  scepticism  of  the  writer. 
When  a  Christian  bishop  or  doctor,  or  a  religious  king, 


HISTORY.  487 

comes  before  his  field  of  vision,  it  is  not  in  Gibbon  to 
be  just ;  he  can  not  or  will  not  believe  that  such  a  man 
was  any  thing  more  than  a  compound  of  enthusiasm 
and  superstition,  in  whom  morality  was  always  ready 
to  give  way  to  ecclesiastical  considerations ;  and  his 
sneering  cavils  seem  to  leave  their  trail  upon  the  purest 
virtue,  the  most  exalted  heroism,  which  the  times  that 
he  writes  of  produced  for  the  instruction  of  mankind. 
He  is  in  thorough  sympathy  with  no  one  except  Julian 
the  Apostate.  Again,  his  ardent  attachment  to  the 
civilization  and  literature  of  Greece  and  Rome  involved 
him  in  a  partial  blindness  and  unfairness  to  the  immense 
importance  of  the  part  played  by  the  Teutonic  race  in 
modern  history ;  and  this  unfairness  does  certainly,  to 
some  extent,  affect  the  general  value  of  his  history, 
considered  as  a  trustworthy  picture  of  a  great  sequence 
of  events. 

Dr.  Arnold's  unfinished  Roman  history,  based  upon 
that  of  Niebuhr,  extends  from  the  founding  of  the  city 
to  the  middle  of  the  second  Punic  war.  Two  additional 
volumes,  written  at  an  earlier  period,  but  not  published 
till  after  the  author's  death,  carry  on  the  history  of  the 
Roman  Commonwealth  from  the  close  of  the  second 
Punic  war  to  the  death  of  Augustus,  with  a  separate 
chapter  on  the  reign  of  Trajan. 

Among  those  who  have  written  the  history  of  Eng- 
land, Scotland,  or  Ireland,  it  is  impossible  to  do  more 
than  mention  a  few  prominent  names. 

Sir  Thomas  More's  "  History  of  the  Reign  of  Edward 
V."  is  a  youthful  and  rhetorical  production,  which, 
according  to  Horace  Walpole,  who,  in  his  "  Historic 
Doubts  respecting  Richard  III.,"  has  sifted  the  whole 
matter  very  ably,  will  nowhere  stand  a  critical  exami- 
nation and  confrontation  with  the  original  authorities. 
Lord  Bacon's  "  History  of  Henry  VII.,"  though  com- 


488  HISTORY  OP  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

posed  in  a  homely  style,  is  a  masterly  work.  Men's 
motives  are  deeply  probed,  and  their  actions  wisely 
weighed ;  laws  and  events  affecting  the  course  of  trade, 
the  progress  of  agriculture,  and  the  welfare  of  particu- 
lar classes  of  society,  are  carefully  recorded  and  exam- 
ined ;  truth  without  disguise  seems  to  be  the  writer's 
paramount  design  ;  and  characters  are  drawn  as  by  an 
eye  that  saw  all,  and  a  hand  that  could  paint  all. 
Milton's  "  History  of  England  "  is  a  mere  fragment. 
Neal's  "  History  of  the  Puritans,"  and  another  of  "New 
England"  by  the  same  author,  are  both  valuable  works, 
because  carefully  based  on  documentary  and  oral 
evidence.  But  the  most  eminent  historians  of  the 
seventeenth  century  belong  to  the  contemporary  class. 

In  the  next  century,  and  down  to  1850,  we  can 
barely  mention  the  names  of  Rapin,  Carte,  Lord  Hailes, 
Belsham,  and  Adolphus.  Hume's  clear  and  manly 
style  would  have  insured  to  his  "  History  of  England  " 
a  longer  pre-eminence,  had  not  his  indolence  allowed 
inaccuracies  and  a  want  of  references  to  deform  his 
work.  Robertson's  u  History  of  Scotland  "  is  pleasant 
reading,  but  uncritical.  The  work  similarly  entitled 
by  Sir  Walter  Scott  embraces  all  the  earlier  portions 
of  the  history,  from  A.D.  80  to  the  accession  of  Mary 
Queen  of  Scots,  which  Robertson  had  omitted.  Moore's 
"  History  of  Ireland  "  is  a  work  unworthy  of  his  genius. 
Lanigan's  "  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Ireland,"  embra- 
cing the  period  from  the  conversion  of  the  Irish  by  St. 
Patrick,  to  the  loss  of  their  national  independence  in 
the  twelfth  century,  is  a  calm,  dispassionate,  and  pro- 
foundly learned  work. 

No  very  signal  success  has  been  achieved  by  English 
writers  in  compiling  histories  of  modern  Continental 
states.  Knolles's  "  History  of  the  Turks  "  must  be 
named  under  this  head ;  and  Coxe's  "  Memoirs  of  the 


HISTORY.  489 

House  of  Austria,"  and  Russell's  "  Modern  Europe," 
and  Roscoe's  "  Lorenzo  de  Medici."  Here  also  must 
be  placed  Arnold's  "  Introductory  Lectures  on  Modern 
History,"  which  contain  several  brilliant  isolated 
sketches.  One  such  passage  we  extract :  — 

"  Ten  years  afterwards  there  broke  out  by  far  the  most  alarming 
danger  of  universal  dominion  which  had  ever  threatened  Europe. 
The  most  military  people  in  Europe  became  engaged  in  a  war  for 
their  very  existence.  Invasion  on  the  frontiers,  civil  war  and  all 
imaginable  horrors  raging  within,  the  ordinary  relations  of  life 
went  to  wrack,  and  every  Frenchman  became  a  soldier.  It  was  a 
multitude  numerous  as  the  hosts  of  Persia,  but  animated  by  the 
courage  and  skill  and  energy  of  the  old  Romans.  One  thing  alone 
was  wanting,  that  which  Pyrrhus  said  the  Romans  wanted  to  enable 
them  to  conquer  the  world,  —  a  general  and  a  ruler  like  himself. 
There  was  wanted  a  master  hand  to  restore  and  maintain  peace  at 
home,  and  to  concentrate  and  direct  the  immense  military  resources 
of  France  against  her  foreign  enemies.  And  such  an  one  appeared 
in  Napoleon.  Pacifying  La  Vendee,  receiving  back  the  emigrants, 
restoring  the  Church,  remodelling  the  law,  personally  absolute,  yet 
carefully  preserving  and  maintaining  all  the  great  points  which  the 
nation  had  won  at  the  Revolution,  Napoleon  united  in  himself  not 
only  the  power,  but  the  whole  will  of  France;  and  that  power  and  will 
were  guided  by  a  genius  for  war  such  as  Europe  had  never  seen  since 
Caesar.  The  effect  was  absolutely  magical.  In  November,  1799,  he 
was  made  First  Consul ;  he  found  France  humbled  by  defeats,  his 
Italian  conquests  lost,  his  allies  invaded,  his  own  frontier  threatened. 
He  took  the  field  in  May,  1800 ;  and  in  June  the  whole  fortune  of  the 
war  was  changed,  and  Austria  driven  out  of  Lombardy  by  the  victory 
of  Marengo.  Still  the  flood  of  the  tide  rose  higher  and  higher,  and 
every  successive  wave  of  its  advance  swept  away  a  kingdom.  Earthly 
state  has  never  reached  a  prouder  pinnacle  than  when  Napoleon,  in 
June,  1812,  gathered  his  army  at  Dresden,  and  there  received  the 
homage  of  subject  kings.  And,  now,  what  was  the  principal  adversary 
of  this  tremendous  power?  by  whom  was  it  checked,  and  resisted, 
and  put  down  ?  By  none,  and  by  nothing,  but  the  direct  and  mani- 
fest interposition  of  God !  I  know  of  no  language  so  well  fitted  to 
describe  that  victorious  advance  to  Moscow,  and  the  utter  humiliation 
of  the  retreat,  as  the  language  of  the  prophet  with  respect  to  the 
advance  and  subsequent  destruction  of  the  host  of  Sennacherib." 

Orme,  Mill,  and  Elphinstone  are  the  chief  authorities 
for  the  history  of  India.  The  first  two  confine  their 


490  HISTORY  OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

attention  to  British  India;  but  Elphinstone's  work 
treats  chiefly  to  the  times  anterior  to  European  occupa- 
tion. For  the  history  of  the  colonial  dependencies  of 
European  states,  Robertson  in  his  "  History  of  Amer- 
ica," and  Bryan  Edwards,  author  of  a  history  of 
Jamaica,  are  the  only  names  of  much  importance. 
Prescott,  Bancroft,  and  other  American  writers,  have 
ably  taken  up  that  portion  of  the  subject  which  relates 
to  the  American  Continent. 

Mr.  James  and  Capt.  Brenton  have  written  the  naval 
history  of  Britain.  The  latter  has  the  advantage  in 
style,  the  former  in  accuracy  and  clearness  of  arrange- 
ment. Sir  William  Napier's  "  History  of  the  Peninsu- 
lar War  "  is  a  work  of  the  highest  order.  We  cannot 
resist  the  temptation  of  transcribing  one  of  the  many 
glowing  and  eloquent  passages  with  which  it  abounds. 
It  refers  to  the  closing  struggle  of  the  battle  of  Al- 
buera :  — 

"The  conduct  of  a  few  brave  men  soon  changed  this  state  of 
affairs.  Col.  Robert  Arbuthnot,  pushing  between  the  double  fire  of 
the  mi-takfii  troops,  anv-tcil  that  mi-diirf ;  while  Cole,  with  the 
fusiliers,  flunked  by  a  battalion  of  the  Lusitanian  Legion  under  Col. 
Hawkshawe,  mounted  the  hill,  dispersed  the  lancers,  recovered  the 
captured  guns,  and  appeared  on  the  right  of  Houghtori's  brigade 
exactly  as  Abercrombie  passed  it  on  the  left. 

*'  Such  a  gallant  line,  issuing  from  th<-  midst  of  the  smoke,  and  rap- 
idly separating  itself  from  the  confused  and  broken  multitude,  startled 
the  enemy's  heavy  masses,  which  were  increasing  and  pressing  on- 
wards as  to  an  assured  victory:  they  wavered,  hesitated,  and  then, 
vomiting  forth  a  storm  of  fire,  hastily  endeavored  to  enlarge  their 
front,  while  a  fearful  discharge  of  grape  from  their  artillery  whistled 
through  the  British  ranks.  Myers  was  killed ;  Cole,  and  the  three 
colonels,  Ellis,  Blakeney,  and  Hawkshawe,  fell  wounded;  and  the 
fusilier  battalions,  struck  by  the  iron  tempest,  reeled  and  staggered 
like  sinking  ships.  Suddenly  and  sternly  recovering,  they  closed 
with  their  terrible  enemies ;  and  then  was  seen  with  what  a  strength 
and  majesty  the  British  soldier  fights.  In  vain  did  Soult  by  voice 
and  gesture  animate  his  Frenchmen ;  in  vain  did  the  noblest  veterans, 
extricating  themselves  from  the  crowded  columns,  sacrifice  their  lives 


BIOGRAPHY.  491 

to  gain  time  for  the  mass  to  bear  up  on  such  a  fair  field ;  in  vain  did 
the  mass  itself  bear  up,  and,  fiercely  striving,  fire  indiscriminately 
npon  friends  and  foes,  while  the  horsemen,  hovering  upon  their  flank, 
threatened  to  charge  the  advancing  line.  Nothing  could  stop  that 
astonishing  infantry.  No  sudden  burst  of  undisciplined  valor,  no 
nervous  enthusiasm,  weakened  the  stability  of  their  order;  their 
flashing  eyes  were  bent  on  the  dark  columns  in  their  front;  their 
measured  tread  shook  the  ground;  their  murderous  volleys  swept 
away  the  head  of  every  formation ;  their  deafening  shouts  overpow- 
ered the  dissonant  cries  which  arose  from  all  parts  of  the  tumultuous 
crowd,  as  foot  by  foot,  and  with  a  horrid  carnage,  it  was  driven  by 
the  incessant  vigor  of  the  attack  to  the  farthest  edge  of  the  hill.  In 
vain  did  the  French  reserves,  joining  with  the  struggling  multitude, 
endeavor  to  sustain  the  fight :  their  efforts  only  increased  the  irreme- 
diable confusion ;  and  the  mighty  mass,  giving  way  like  a  loosened 
cliff,  went  headlong  down  the  ascent.  The  rain  flowed  after  in 
streams  discolored  with  blood ;  and  fifteen  hundred  un wounded  men, 
the  remnant  of  six  thousand  unconquerable  British  soldiers,  stood 
triumphant  on  the  fatal  hill." 

Biography :  its  Divisions  ;  Diaries,  Letters. 

This  branch  of  literature  opens  with  autobiographies, 
which,  when  well  executed,  constitute  its  most  valuable 
and  interesting  portion.  We  have  little  to  set  by  the 
side  of  the  charming  "  M£moires,"  in  innumerable  vol- 
umes, which  form  so  piquant  a  portion  of  the  literature 
of  France.  Scott's  fragment  of  autobiography,  printed 
at  the  beginning  of  the  "  Life  "  by  Lockhart,  is  admira- 
ble ;  but  unfortunately  it  is  only  a  fragment,  and  breaks 
off  when  the  hero  has  reached  his  twentieth  year.  A 
similar  fragment  by  Southey,  though  longer,  makes  less 
progress,  for  it  terminates  at  the  fifteenth  year  ;  nor  do 
we  much  regret  its  unfinished  state.  Gibbon's  "  Me- 
moirs "  are  much  in  the  French  style  and  manner,  and 
form,  perhaps,  the  most  interesting  and  best  executed 
autobiography  that  we  possess.  Hume  also,  and  Priest- 
ley, have  each  given  us  an  account  of  his  life  and 
opinions.  Baxter's  unwieldy  "  Reliquiae  Baxterianse," 
or  narrative  of  the  most  memorable  passages  of  his  life 
and  times,  has  been  already  mentioned  (see  p.  206). 


492  HISTORY    OF   ENGLISH    LITERATURE. 

1.  In  biography  exclusive  of  autobiography,  we  may 
distinguish,  1,  general  compilations;    2,  national  com- 
pilations ;  3,  class  biographies ;  4,  personal  biographies. 
Of  the  first  kind,  it  is  to  our  reproach  that  until  the  last 
few  years  we  have  had  no  specimen  deserving  of  men- 
tion.    To  the  "  Biographic  Universelle  "  and  the  "  Con- 
versations-Lexicon," we  had  for  a  long  time  nothing  to 
oppose   but   the    insignificant    compilations    of    Aikin, 
Grainger,  and  Gorton.     Alexander  Chalmers  was  the 
first  to  bring  out  a  biographical  dictionary  of  some  pre- 
tension ;  but  even  in  this  the  omissions  are  numerous, 
and  important. 

2.  Of  the  second  kind,  we  have  the  "  Biographia  Bri- 
tannica,"  a  work  of  great  research,  though  with  many 
serious  omissions.     The  original  edition  embraced  the 
entire  alphabet ;  but  its  defects  were  so  glaring  as  to 
determine  Dr.  Kippis  and  others  to  undertake  a  re-issue 
of  the  work  upon  an  enlarged  scale ;  the  new  edition, 
however,  was  never  carried  further  than  the  commence- 
ment of  the  letter  F.     Fuller's  "  Worthies  of  England," 
noticed  at  p.  205,  is  a  work  of  the  same  description. 

3.  Of  class  biographies  —  not  to  mention  the  Latin 
works  of  Leland,   Bale,  and  Pitseus,  "  De  Illustribus 
Britanniae    Scriptoribus "    -  the    chief    examples    are, 
Walton's    "  Lives    of     Anglican    Divines,"    including 
Hooker,  Donne,  and  Sanderson  ;   Wood's  "  Athense  Ox> 
onienses,"  which  is  a   collection  of  short  memoirs  of 
Oxford   men ;   Johnson's    "  Lives   of  the  Poets  ; "  and 
Hartley  Coleridge's  "  Biographia  Borealis,"  or  "  Lives  of 
Northern  Worthies."     From  Johnson's  account  of  Gray, 
we   extract   a    passage    strongly    characteristic   of    his 
peculiar  style :  — 

" '  The  Bard '  appears,  at  the  first  view,  to  be,  as  Algarotti  and 
others  have  remarked,  an  imitation  of  the  prophecy  of  Nereus.  Al- 
garotti thinks  it  superior  to  its  original ;  and,  if  preference  depends 


BIOGRAPHY.  493 

on  the  imagery  and  animation  of  the  two  poems,  his  judgment  is 
right.  There  is  in  '  The  Bard '  more  force,  more  thought,  and  more 
variety.  But  to  copy  is  less  than  to  invent ;  and  the  copy  has  been 
unhappily  produced  at  a  wrong  time.  The  fiction  of  Horace  was  to 
the  Romans  credible ;  but  its  revival  disgusts  us  with  apparent  and 
unconquerable  falsehood.  Incredulus  odi. 

"To  select  a  singular  event,  and  swell  it  to  a  giant's  bulk  by  fabu- 
lous appendages  of  spectres  and  predictions,  has  little  difficulty;  for  he 
that  forsakes  the  probable  may  always  find  the  marvellous.  And  it 
has  little  use ;  we  are  affected  only  as  we  believe ;  we  are  improved 
only  as  we  find  something  to  be  imitated  or  declined.  I  do  not  see 
that  '  The  Bard '  promotes  any  truth,  moral  or  political. 

"  His  stanzas  are  too  long,  especially  his  epodes ;  the  ode  is  finished 
before  the  ear  has  learned  its  measures,  and  consequently  before  it 
can  receive  pleasure  from  their  consonance  and  recurrence. 

"  Of  the  first  stanza,  the  abrupt  beginning  has  been  celebrated ;  but 
technical  beauties  can  give  praise  only  to  the  inventor.  It  is  in  the 
power  of  every  man  to  rush  abruptly  upon  his  subject  that  has  read 
the  ballad  of  *  Johnny  Armstrong,'  — 

'  Is  there  ever  a  man  in  all  Scotland.' 

The  initial  resemblances,  or  alliterations,  'ruin,  ruthless,  helm,  or 
hauberk,'  are  below  the  grandeur  of  a  poem  that  endeavors  at  sub- 
limity." 

4.  Among  personal  biographies,  Boswell's  "  Life  of 
Johnson  "  holds  confessedly  the  first  place.  Next  to  it 
in  point  of  literary  value,  but  of  equal  if  not  greater 
intrinsic  interest,  comes  Lockhart's  "  Life  of  Scott."  It 
must  be  owned  that  we  English  have  not  done  that 
part  of  our  hero-worship  particularly  well,  which  con- 
sists in  writing  good  lives  of  our  heroes.  Shakspeare's 
life  was  never  written  at  all.  Toland's  and  Philips's 
lives  of  Milton,  and  Noble's  memoirs  of  Cromwell  and 
his  family,  all  fall  far  beneath  their  subjects.  Ruff- 
head's  "  Life  of  Pope  "  is  utterly  contemptible.  Dry- 
den  and  Swift  have  fared  better,  having  found  a  compe- 
tent and  zealous  biographer  in  Scott.  Southey  also 
gained  much  credit  by  his  biographies  of  Wesley  and 
Nelson ;  and  it  may  be  said  generally  that  during  the 

42 


494  HISTORY  OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

present  century  we  have  done  much  to  make  up  for  our 
past  deficiencies  in  this  department.  Scott's  "  Life  of 
Napoleon "  is  rather  a  history  of  the  revolutionary 
period  than  a  personal  memoir.  Between  1840  and 
1850,  the  most  noteworthy  biographies  that  appeared 
were  Arnold's  "  Life  "  by  Stanley,  and  the  "  Life,  Diary, 
and  Letters  of  Mr.  Wilberforce,"  edited  by  his  sons. 

Diaries  and  letters,  if  published  separately,  are  to  be 
regarded  as  so  much  biographical  or  historical  material. 
The  Diary  of  Burton,  a  member  of  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment, throws  much  light  on  the  political  history  of  the 
time.  Those  of  Samuel  Pepys  and  John  Evelyn,  in  the 
reign  of  Charles  II.,  take  a  more  extensive  range ;  we 
derive  from  them  much  curious  information  as  to  the 
literature,  art,  manners,  and  morals  of  that  age.  The 
"  Diary  and  Letters  of  Madame  D'Arblay,"  the  author- 
ess of  "  Cecilia/'  are  somewhat  disappointing.  We 
have  full  details  of  the  private  life  of  the  court  of 
George  III.,  at  which  the  lively  Frances  Burney  fig- 
ured in  the  capacity  of  a  waiting-woman  to  the  queen  ; 
but  what  a  dismal  court  it  was !  what  an  absence,  not 
only  of  gayety  and  brilliancy,  but  even  of  ordinary 
refinement !  In  collections  of  letters,  our  literature  is 
rather  rich.  The  correspondence  of  Horace  Walpole, 
that  prince  of  letter-writers,  with  Sir  Horace  Mann,  the 
Hon.  Seymour  Conway,  and  others;  the  "Letters  and 
Speeches  of  Cromwell,"  edited  by  Mr.  Carlyle;  and 
those  of  Cowper,  by  Southey, — are  among  the  chief  con- 
tributions to  this  branch  of  literature.  Pope  rose  in 
this,  as  in  every  other  intellectual  effort,  to  the  highest 
excellence  ;  his  letters  to  Swift  and  others  seem  to  be 
the  perfection  of  letter-writing.  Chesterfield's  once- 
famous  Letters  to  his  Son  are  fast  being  forgotten. 


THEOLOGY.  495 

Theology:  its  Divisions. 

The  general  character  of  English  theology,  which  is 
of  course  chiefly  of  Protestant  authorship,  stamps  it  as 
controversial  and  occasional.  Except  works  of  pure 
learning,  its  most  vigorous  and  famous  productions  have 
all  been  either  defensive  or  aggressive.  They  have  also 
been  occasional ;  that  is,  they  have  been  designed  to 
suit  some  immediate  purpose,  and  have  sprung  out  of 
some  special  conjuncture  of  circumstances,  —  differing 
in  this  respect  from  most  of  the  great  works  of  Roman 
Catholic  theologians,  at  least  in  latter  times,  which 
have  usually  either  been  the  fruit  of  the  accumulated 
study  and  meditation  of  years,  or  have  grown  out  of 
systematic  course  of  lectures. 

We  may  best  find  a  clew  through  the  immense  laby- 
rinth of  theological  literature,  by  dividing  the  subject 
into  several  branches,  and  then  examining  the  chief 
works  written  by  English  divines  in  each  branch. 
These  divisions  may  be  thus  stated  :  1,  doctrinal  the- 
ology ;  2,  moral  theology ;  3,  hermeneutics  and  biblical 
criticism ;  4,  symbolical ;  5,  patristic ;  6,  rationalizing 
theology ;  7,  pastoral  theology,  or  homiletics ;  8,  devo- 
tional theology.  To  these  it  will  be  convenient  to  add, 
9,  polemics,  for  the  purpose  of  including  a  large  class 
of  works  which  draw  successively  upon  all  storehouses 
of  theological  argument  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  con- 
troversy, and  cannot,  therefore,  be  fitly  classed  under 
any  one  of  the  preceding  heads. 

Pure  doctrinal  discussions  have  not,  on  the  whole, 
found  much  favor  with  English  divines  ;  at  least,  unless 
we  go  back  to  the  subtile  doctor,  Duns  Scotus,  Alex- 
ander Hales  the  Irrefragable,  and  other  great  British 
thinkers  of  the  middle  age.  An  exception,  however, 
must  be  made  to  this  remark,  in  favor  of  the  sacra- 
mental controversy,  on  which  an  immense  number  of 


496  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

tracts  and  treatises  have  been  written.  Upon  other 
doctrinal  topics  the  important  books  that  exist  may  be 
soon  enumerated.  They  are,  Field's  "Book  of  the 
Church,"  Bull's  "Defensio  Fidei  Nicenae,"  Sherlock's 
"  Vindication  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity  "  written 
against  the  Sociriians,  Wall  on  "  Infant  Baptism,"  and 
Waterland's  "  Vindication  of  Christ's  Divinity,"  in 
reply  to  the  Arian  Dr.  Clarke.  Of  these  works,  the 
iirst  three  date  from  the  seventeenth,  the  last  two  from 
the  eighteenth  century.  Dr.  Richard  Field  was  a  favor- 
ite with  James  I.,  who  used  to  say  of  him,  "  Truly  this 
is  a  field  which  the  Lord  hath  blessed."  In  his  "  Book 
of  the  Church,"  written  in  reply  to  Stapleton  and  other 
Roman  Catholic  writers,  after  laying  down  from  Scrip- 
ture and  the  fathers  the  notes  of  the  true  Church,  he 
endeavored  to  show  that  these  notes  had  been  obliter- 
ated from  the  Roman  communion,  and  were  all  to  be 
found  in  the  Anglican.  The  discussion  is  mainly  doc- 
trinal, and  turns  upon  the  interpretation  of  the  terms 
k>  unity,"  "  indefectibility,"  "  sanctity,"  &c.,  in  which  the 
doctrinal  definition  of  the  Church  was  expressed  alike 
by  the  High  Church  Anglicans  and  their  opponents. 

Bishop  Bull's  famous  "Defensio"  was  primarily 
intended  as  a  reply  to  Petavius,  the  learned  author  of 
the  "  Rationarium  Temporum,"  who  had  remarked  that 
the  language  held  by  the  fathers  of  the  early  Church, 
prior  to  the  council  of  Nice,  respecting  the  divinity  of 
the  Son,  was  often  loose,  ambiguous,  and  even,  if  the 
literal  meaning  of  the  words  were  pressed,  heterodox.1 
This  statement  had  been  eagerly  seized,  and  made  the 
most  of,  by  Arian  and  Socinian  controversialists.  In 
opposition  both  to  them  and  to  Petavius,  Bull  maintains 

1  With  reference  to  these  fathers,  the  words  addressed  by  St. 
Augustine  to  Theodore  the  Pelagian  should  be  borne  in  mind :  "  Vobis 
nondum  litigantibus,  securius  loquebantur." 


THEOLOGY.  497 

in  this  work  the  perfect  orthodoxy  not  only  of  the 
sentiments,  but  of  the  language,  of  the  Ante-Nicene 
Fathers.  In  doing  so,  Mr.  Hallam  considers  that  he  is 
not  always  candid  or  convincing. 

Sherlock's  "  Vindication  "  is  not  a  work  of  very  high 
ability  ;  and  it  has  been  said  that  he  lays  himself  open 
in  it  to  the  imputation  of  Tritheism.  Waterland's 
book  against  Arianism,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  very 
masterly  production,  and  extinguished  that  opinion  in 
England.  Waterland,  who  died  in  1740,  was  the  last 
great  patristical  scholar  among  Anglican  divines.1  But, 
while  he  makes  what  use  he  can  of  the  appeal  to  ancient 
testimonies,  the  influence  exerted  by  Locke's  "  Essay  " 
on  all  subsequent  thinkers  may  be  traced  in  the  closer 
logic  and  more  systematic  argumentation  with  which 
Waterland  —  as  compared  to  the  writers  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  —  deals  with  the  reasonings  of  Clarke. 
Wall's  treatise  on  "  Infant  Baptism  "  (1705)  is  a  very 
fair  and  temperate  as  well  as  learned  work,  the  object 
of  which  is,  first,  to  prove  what  was  the  practice  of  the 
early  Church  with  reference  to  baptism  during  the  first 
four  centuries,  and  then  to  urge  upon  the  Baptists,  or, 
as  he  calls  them,  Antipsedo-Baptists,  various  considera- 
tions touching  the  evils  of  disunion,  and  the  ease  with 
which  they  might,  if  so  disposed,  rejoin  the  Anglican 
communion. 

Moral  theology  may  be  generally  described  as  the 
exhibition  of  moral  science  from  the  religious  point  of 
view,  and  under  theological  conditions.  Casuistry,  one 
of  its  most  important  developments,  is  the  application 
of  theology  to  the  solution  of  difficult  questions  in 
morals.  Under  this  head,  Taylor's  "  Ductor  Dubitan- 
tium  "  (which  he  thought  the  best,  but  most  people 

1  See  Bowling's  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Ecclesiastical 
History. 


498  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

regard  as  the  worst  of  his  works),  Perkins's  "  Cases  of 
Conscience,"  Sanderson's  treatise  "  De  Juramento,"  and 
Forbes's  "  Theologia  Moralis,"  are  almost  the  only 
works  that  can  be  named  ;  and  none  of  them  is  of  great 
celebrity. 

In  hermeneutics  and  biblical  criticism,  much  greater 
things  have  been  effected.  Here  we  have  to  name 
Walton's  "  Polyglot,"  consisting  of  synoptical  versions 
of  the  Bible  in  nine  languages,  and  Lightfoot's  "Horse 
Hebraic.e,"  and  k*  Harmony  of  the  Four  Gospels." 
Matthew  Pool's  "  Synopsis  Criticnrum  "  is  an  immense 
compilation  of  the  principal  commentaries  on  the  New 
Testament.  In  his  bulky  "  Paraphrase  and  Annotations 
on  the  New  Testament,"  Hammond  appears  to  be  almost 
overpowered  by  the  fulness  and  extent  of  his  learning, 
and  unable  to  wield  and  master  it  with  the  readiness 
displayed  by  some  of  his  contemporaries.  Leighton's 
"  Commentary  on  St.  Peter  "  is  extolled  by  Coleridge 
with  an  unmeasured  laudation,  to  which  neither  its 
learning  nor  its  ability  appears  sufficiently  to  entitle  it. 

Symbolical  theology  treats  of  the  symlola  or  confes- 
sional formularies  of  different  religious  denominations. 
Moehler's  "  Symbolik  "  will  immediately  occur  to  the 
reader  as  a  classic  in  this  branch  of  divinity.  The 
Anglican  works  of  this  nature  are,  Pearson's  "  Exposi- 
tion of  the  Apostles'  Creed  "  (1659),  and  Biirriet's  work 
on  the  Thirty-nine  Articles. 

But  it  was  in  patristic  divinity  —  that  branch  which 
examines,  compares,  and  arranges  the  testimonies  borne 
by  the  fathers  and  councils  of  the  early  Christian  cen- 
turies ;  and  more  especially  in  patristic  learning,  by 
which  we  chiefly  mean  the  task  of  editing  the  works 
of  the  fathers  —  that  the  Anglican  divines  gained  their 
greatest  distinctions.  In  this  wide  field,  all  that  can 
be  done  here  —  and  even  that  may  be  of  some  use  — 


THEOLOGY.  499 

is  to  indicate  a  few  of  the  most  important  works.  We 
may  name,  for  instance,  Fell's  edition  of  Cyprian,  and 
Bishop  Potter's  edition  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus 
(a  standard  work,  still  unsuperseded),  and  Pearson's 
"  Vindicise  Epistolarum  S.  Ignatii "  and  a  Annales 
Cyprianici,"  and  Beveridge's  "  Pandectae  Canonum  SS. 
Apostolorum  "  (a  book  of  immense  learning),  and  Dod- 
well's  "  Dissertations "  on  SS.  Cyprian  and  Irenseus. 
In  ecclesiastical  history  and  antiquities  we  have  Usher's 
"Annales,"  Cave's  "Primitive  Christianity"  (1673) 
and  "  Historia  Literaria  "  of  ecclesiastical  writers  from 
the  Christian  era  to  the  fourteenth  century,  and,  above 
all,  Bingham's  "  Origines  Ecclesiastics  ;  or,  Antiquities 
of  the  Christian  Church  "  (1708-1722),  a  work  of  great 
research  and  eminent  usefulness.  In  many  of  these 
books  there  is  a  controversial  element ;  but  in  none  of 
them  does  the  writer  propose  to  himself  as  his  main 
object  the  establishment  of  a  thesis,  or  the  refutation 
of  an  opponent ;  they  are  not,  therefore,  to  be  classed 
among  polemics. 

The  seventeenth  century  is  the  great  time  for  the 
patristic  writers.  The  rationalizing  divines  date,  for 
the  most  part,  from  the  eighteenth.  The  former 
appealed  to  antiquity  and  authority  in  the  discussion 
of  disputed  questions,  the  latter  to  reason  and  common- 
sense.  Stillingfleet  in  his  "  Origines  Sacrse ;  or,  a 
Rational  Account  of  the  Grounds  of  Christian  Faith  " 
(1663),  directed  against  Hobbes  and  the  atheists,  and 
again  in  his  "  Rational  Account  of  the  Grounds  of  Prot- 
estant Religion  "  (1681),  against  the  Catholics,  took 
up  the  new  line  of  controversy,  and  may  be  regarded 
as  individually  anticipating  the  seculum  rationalisticum. 
Leslie's  "Short  Method  with  the  Deists"  (1694),  But- 
ler's "  Analogy,"  Warburton's  "  Divine  Legation," 
(1743),  Berkeley's  "  Alciphron"  —  all  of  which  formed 


500  HISTORY  OF   ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

portions  of  the  great  debate  on  Deism,  —  together  with 
Lardner's  "  Credibility  of  the  Gospels,"  and  Paley's 
"  Evidences,"  the  materials  for  which  he  took  from 
Lardner,  are  the  chief  remaining  works  to  be  cited 
under  this  head. 

In  pastoral  theology,  or  homiletics,  the  number  of 
published  volumes  of  sermons  almost  defies  compu- 
tation. Among  the  principal  names  are,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  Donne,  Andrews,  Bramhall,  Taylor, 
Cosin,  Hammond,  Beveridge,  South,  and  Tillotson ; 
in  the  eighteenth,  Butler,  Clark,  Wesley,  and  White- 
field  ;  in  the  nineteenth,  Robert  Hall,  Rowland  Hill, 
Chalmers,  Arnold,  Hare,  &c. 

In  devotional  theology,  though  the  list  is,  on  the 
whole,  a  meagre  one,  some  remarkable  books  have  to 
be  named.  Such  are  William  Law's  "  Serious  Call  to 
a  Holy  Life,"  the  book  which  made  so  great  an 
impression  on  Johnson  ;  Baxter's  "  Saints'  Everlasting 
Rest"  and  "  Call  to  the  Unconverted;"  "The  Whole 
Duty  of  Man,"  a  work  of  unknown  authorship,  but 
precious  in  the  sight  of  our  forefathers  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago,  and  spoken  of  in  that  sense  in  the 
"  Spectator ; "  lastly,  Taylor's  moving  and  eloquent 
treatises  "  Of  Holy  Living,"  and  "  Of  Holy  Dying." 
An  extract  from  the  latter  will  enable  the  reader  to 
form  some  idea  of  Taylor's  rich  and  gorgeous  style, 
of  the  power  of  his  imagination,  and  the  general  ful- 
ness of  his  mind.  It  is  upon  the  shortness  of  life,  and 
the  multitudinous  warnings  with  which  it  teems,  all 
telling  us  to  prepare  to  die  :  — 

"  All  the  succession  of  time,  all  the  changes  in  nature,  all  the  varie- 
ties of  light  and  darkness,  the  thousand  thousands  of  accidents  in  the 
world,  and  every  contingency  to  every  man  and  to  every  creature, 
doth  preach  our  funeral  sermon,  and  calls  us  to  look  and  see  how  the 
old  sexton,  Time,  throws  up  the  earth,  and  digs  a  grave  where  we 
must  lay  our  sins  or  our  sorrows,  and  sow  our  bodies,  till  they  rise 


THEOLOGY.  501 

again  in  a  fair  or  an  intolerable  eternity.  Every  revolution  which  the 
sun  makes  about  the  world  divides  between  life  and  death,  and  death 
possesses  both  those  portions  by  the  next  morrow ;  and  we  are  dead 
to  all  those  months  which  we  have  already  lived,  and  we  shall  never 
live  them  over  again ;  and  still  God  makes  little  periods  of  our  age. 
First  we  change  our  world,  when  we  come  from  the  womb  to  feel  the 
warmth  of  the  sun ;  then  we  sleep,  and  enter  into  the  image  of  death, 
in  which  state  we  are  unconcerned  in  all  the  changes  of  the  world ; 
and  if  our  mothers  or  our  nurses  die,  or  a  wild  boar  destroy  our  vine- 
yards, or  our  king  be  sick,  we  regard  it  not,  but,  during  that  state, 
are  as  disinterested  as  if  our  eyes  were  closed  with  the  clay  that 
weeps  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  At  the  end  of  seven  years,  our 
teeth  fall  and  die  before  us,  representing  a  formal  prologue  to  the 
tragedy,  and  still  every  seven  years  it  is  odds  but  we  shall  finish  the 
last  scene ;  and  when  nature,  or  chance,  or  vice,  takes  our  body  in 
pieces,  weakening  some  parts  and  loosing  others,  we  taste  the  grave 
and  the  solemnities  of  our  own  funeral,  first,  in  those  parts  that 
ministered  to  vice,  and,  next,  in  them  that  served  for  ornament;  and 
in  a  short  time  even  they  that  served  for  necessity  become  useless 
and  entangled,  like  the  wheels  of  a  broken  clock.  Baldness  is  but  a 
dressing  to  our  funerals,  the  proper  ornament  of  mourning,  and  of  a 
person  entered  very  far  into  the  regions  and  possession  of  death ;  and 
we  have  many  more  of  the  same  signification, — gray  hairs,  rotten 
teeth,  dim  eyes,  trembling  joints,  short  breath,  stiff  limbs,  wrinkled 
skin,  short  memory,  decayed  appetite.  Every  day's  necessity  calls  for 
a  reparation  of  that  portion  which  Death  fed  on  all  night  when  we 
lay  in  his  lap,  and  slept  in  his  outer  chambers.  The  very  spirits  of  a 
man  prey  upon  his  daily  portion  of  bread  and  flesh ;  and  every  meal 
is  a  rescue  from  one  death,  and  lays  up  for  another;  and  while  we 
think  a  thought  we  die,  and  the  clock  strikes,  and  reckons  on  our 
portion  of  eternity.  We  form  our  words  with  the  breath  of  our  nos- 
trils .  we  have  the  less  to  live  upon  for  every  word  we  speak. 

"  Thus  nature  calls  us  to  meditate  of  death  by  those  things  which 
are  the  instruments  of  acting  it ;  and  God,  by  all  the  variety  of  his 
providence,  makes  us  see  death  everywhere,  in  all  variety  of  circum- 
stances, and  dressed  up  for  all  the  fancies  and  expectation  of  every 
single  person.  Nature  hath  given  us  one  harvest  every  year,  but 
Death  hath  two ,  and  the  spring  and  the  autumn  send  throngs  of  men 
and  women  to  charnel-houses;  and  all  the  summer  long  men  are 
recovering  from  their  evils  of  the  spring,  till  the  dog-days  come,  and 
then  the  Sirian  star  makes  the  summer  deadly;  and  the  fruits  of 
autumn  are  laid  up  for  all  the  year's  provision;  and  the  man  that 
gathers  them  eats  and  surfeits,  and  dies,  and  needs  them  not,  and 
himself  is  laid  up  for  eternity;  and  he  that  escapes  till  winter  only 
stays  for  another  opportunity,  which  the  distempers  of  that  quarter 


502  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

minister  to  him  with  great  variety.  Thus  death  reigns  in  all  the  por- 
tions of  our  time.  The  autumn  with  its  fruits  provides  disorders  for 
us,  and  the  winter's  cold  turns  them  into  sharp  diseases,  and  the 
spring  brings  flowers  to  strew  our  hearse,  and  the  summer  gives  green 
turf  and  brambles  to  bind  upon  our  graves." 

Of  works  of  which  the  entire  form  and  end  are  con- 
troversial, the  quantity  is  immense.  Hooker's  "  Eccle- 
siastical Polity,"  with  the  exception  of  the  first  book, 
which  we  may  range  with  Hallam  among  contributions 
to  moral  and  political  science,  is  a  vindication  of  the 
liturgy  and  ceremonies  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 
of  her  right  to  impose  them,  against  the  attacks  of  the 
Puritans.  Laud's  "Conference  with  Fisher,"  Chilling- 
worth's  "  Religion  of  Protestants,"  Taylor's  "  Dissua- 
sive from  Popery,"  about  a  dozen  treatises,  large  and 
small,  by  Baxter,  and  Barrow  "  On  the  Supremacy," 
are  some  of  the  most  popular  productions  of  this  class. 

The  circumstances  in  which  Roman  Catholics  in 
England  and  Ireland  have  been  placed  since  English 
literature  emerged  from  its  rude  and  semi-barbarous 
beginnings  easily  explain  the  comparative  meagreness 
of  their  theological  literature.  Most  of  the  existing 
works  are,  as  might  have  been  expected,  controversial. 
The  writings  of  Parsons  and  Allen,  Stapleton's  pon- 
derous tomes,  Gother's  works,  Milner's  "  End  of  Con- 
troversy," and  some  able  tracts  by  Dr.  Doyle,  mark  — 
if  we  exclude  works  by  living  authors,  the  Wisemans 
and  Newmans  of  our  own  day  —  some  of  the  most 
important  steps  and  phases  of  the  great  controversy. 
One  or  two  works  of  great  learning  might  be  named, 
such  as  Alford's  "Annales  Britannici,"  or  of  patient 
research,  as  Dodd's  "  Church  History,"  and  Alban 
Butler's  "  Lives  of  the  Fathers,  Martyrs,  and  other 
Principal  Saints,"  &c. 


PHILOSOPHY.  503 

Philosophy ;  its  Divisions :   Political  Science,  Essays,  Criticism. 

With  a  brief  survey  of  what  English  literature  has 
produced  under  this  head,  our  present  task  will  be  con- 
cluded. 

The  term  "  philosophy,"  as  has  been  already  ex- 
plained, is  here  used  in  a  very  wide  and  loose  sense,  and 
applied  to  all  works  Df  thought  and  theory.  We  com- 
mence, however,  with  the  consideration  of  philosophical 
works,  strictly  so  called,  in  examining  which  we  shall 
endeavor  to  observe  some  kind  of  natural  and  rational 
order. 

Logic  is  usually  regarded  as  the  fore-court  of  philos- 
ophy, because  it  is  the  science  which  investigates  the 
form  of  the  reasoning  principle,  philosophy's  indispen- 
sable instrument,  and  establishes  the  conditions  of  its 
effective  use.  The  main  achievements  of  English 
thinkers  in  this  department  are,  Bacon's  "  Novum 
Organum,"  Whately's  "  Elements  of  Logic,"  Mill's 
"  System  of  Logic,"  and  Sir  William  Hamilton's 
"  Lectures." 

Lord  Bacon  —  and  in  this  Mr.  Mill  has  followed  him 
—  treated  logic  less  as  a  formal  science  than  as  a  means 
to  an  ulterior  end,  that  end  being  the  successful  inves- 
tigation of  nature.  The  rules  which  the  logic  of  the 
schools  had  established  for  deductive  reasoning,  though 
indisputable,  were,  in  Bacon's  view,  comparatively 
worthless,  because  they  could  not  guide  the  mind  in  its 
search  after  physical  laws.  They  were  an  instrument 
for  testing  the  soundness  of  the  knowledge  which  we 
had,  or  thought  we  had,  already ;  not  an  instrument 
facilitating  for  us  the  acquisition  of  new  knowledge. 
It  was  for  this  latter  purpose  that  Bacon  devised,  in 
the  "  Novum  Organum,"  the  rules  of  his  new  induc- 
tive logic.  For  what  he  demanded  from  the  science 
was  not  a  solution  of  the  problem,  "  Given  certain 


504  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

premises,  to  deduce  a  logical  conclusion,"  but  an 
analysis  of  the  conditions  under  which  true  premises 
or  propositions,  relative  to  phenomena,  might  be 
formed.  The  human  mind  being  once  turned  into  the 
track  of  the  investigation  of  nature,  it  was  obvious, 
that,  to  prevent  waste  of  labor  and  rash  generalization, 
the  formation  of  such  a  logic  was  indispensable.  Mr. 
Mill  in  his  "  System  of  Logic,"  and  Sir  John  Herschel 
in  his  admirable  "Discourse  on  the  Study  of  Natural 
Philosophy,"  have  done  much  to  complete  the  Baconian 
design. 

Whately  and  Hamilton,  on  the  other  hand,  have 
treated  logic  rather  upon  its  own  merits  as  a  form  id 
science,  than  as  a  mere  instrument  of  inquiry.  Arch- 
bishop Whately 's  "  Elements  of  Logic  "  exhibit,  with 
beautiful  precision  of  statement  and  felicity  of  illustra- 
tion, the  Aristotelian  logic  in  an  English  dress.  Sir  W. 
Hamilton,  having  in  view  the  cultivation  of  mental 
rather  than  of  physical  science,  subjected  the  prelimi- 
nary processes  of  logic,  such  as  generalization  and  predU 
cation,  to  a  new  and  very  rigorous  analysis,  and  has  in 
many  respects  presented  the  technical  parts  of  the 
science  under  a  new  light. 

The  logical  weapon  being  brightened  and  made  ready 
for  action,  the  question  next  occurs,  on  what  subject- 
matter  it  is  to  be  employed.  The  school  of  physicists 
employ  it  at  once  in  the  investigation  of  nature  ;  and 
the  various  hypotheses,  theories,  or  laws  of  physical 
science,  together  with  natural  history  and  other  accu- 
mulations of  facts  gained  by  observation  and  experi- 
ment, are  the  collective  result.  With  such  labors  the 
student  of  literature  has  nothing  to  do.  But  for  those 
who  devote  themselves  to  philosophy,  in  the  ancient 
acceptation  of  the  term,  as  to  that  study  which  will  lead 
them  to  wisdom,  the  next  step,  after  perfecting  the 


PHILOSOPHY.  505 

logical  weapon,  is  psychology,  or  the  study  of  the  human 
mind.  And  as  this  study  divides  itself  into  two  main 
branches,  that  of  the  moral  affections  and  sentiments, 
and  that  of  the  intellectual  faculties,  we  have  a  moral 
and  an  intellectual  philosophy  corresponding.  The  first 
branch  has  been  cultivated  among  ourselves  by  Butler, 
Adam  Smith,  Paley,  Hume,  Hutcheson,  and  many 
others.  Butler's  admirable  "  Sermons,"  preached  at 
the  Rolls  Chapel,  are  the  most  profound  and  important 
contributions  to  moral  philosophy  that  our  literature 
possesses.  Adam  Smith's  "  Theory  of  Moral  Senti- 
ments," l  and  Hume's  "  Inquiry  concerning  the  Prin- 
ciples of  Morals,"  are  also  celebrated  works.  Of  these, 
and  of  the  writings  of  the  other  English  moralists,  the 
reader  will  find  an  account  in  Sir  James  Mackintosh's 
"  Dissertation  on  Ethical  Philosophy." 

Locke's  famous  "  Essay  on  the  Human  Understand- 
ing," which  belongs  to  that  branch  of  psychology 
which  investigates  the  intellectual  faculties,  holds  a 
distinguished  place  not  only  in  English  but  in  univer- 
sal literature.  However,  Locke  examines  many  other 
besides  purely  psychological  questions.  The  Scotch 
school  of  philosophers  pushed  this  class  of  researches 
very  far.  Reid,  Beattie,  Dugald  Stewart,  and  Brown 
carefully  studied  the  intellect,  and  described  its  various 
powers.  Reid,  annoyed  and  scandalized  at  the  scepti- 
cism of  Hume,  propounded  the  theory  of  instincts,  and 
described  a  great  number  of  intellectual  judgments, 
which  Locke  and  his  followers  had  classed  among 
acquired  notions,  as  original  and  instinctive.  He  — 
but  still  more  Beattie  —  carried  this  theory  to  the 
length  of  extravagance,  and  exposed  himself  to  the 

1  A  most  interesting  account  of  this  work  is  given  in  the  chapter 
on  the  Scottish  intellect  in  the  second  volume  of  the  late  Mr.  Buckle's 
History  of  Civilization. 

43 


506  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH   LITERATURE. 

pidicule  of  Priestley  in  his  "  Remarks  on  Dr.  Reid's 
Inquiry."  Hartley's  work  "  On  Man "  is  to  a  large 
extent  psychological.  Lastly,  Sir  W.  Hamilton's  Lec- 
tures contain  probably  a  more  exhaustive  analysis  of 
the  intellectual  processes  and  powers  than  the  work  of 
nny  other  English  writer. 

After  distinguishing  and  describing  the  powers  of  the 
human  mind,  philosophy  in  every  past  age  has  been 
accustomed  to  proceed  to  those  further  in<}iiiries  which 
are  termed  metaphysical^  and  to  ask  itself,  Whence 
did  this  complex  being  which  I  have  just  examined  take 
its  origin?  and  what  is  its  destination?  in  what  relation 
does  this  Unite  stand  to  infinite  intelligence?  can  we 
know  any  thing  of  the  invisible  and  sujuTsi'iisual  world 
that  surrounds  us?  Glorious  and  elevating  specula- 
tions !  which  it  has  become  the  fashion  of  moderate 
thinkers  to  decry  as  useless,  but  which  fora  certain  class 
of  minds,  —  and  those  not  of  the  meanest  capacity, — 
will  possess  to  the  end  of  time  an  invinriMe  attraction. 
We  can  merely  enumerate  the  most  important  among  the 
w<  »rks  of  English  metaphysicians.  Cud  worth's  "  Intel- 
lectual System  of  the  Universe  "  has  for  its  general  ob- 
ject, to  prove,  against  Hobbes  and  the  atheists,  the  exist- 
ence and  the  goodness  of  God.  Henry  More,  the  most 
eminent  among  the  school  known  as  the  Platonizing  di- 
vines of  the  seventeenth  century,  is  the  author  of  "  The 
Mystery  of  Godliness,"  "An  Antidote  against  Athe- 
ism," "  Enchiridion  Metaphysicum,"  and  other  works, 
in  which,  with  much  that  is  noble  and  lofty,  we  remark 
too  manifest  a  readiness  to  put  faith,  upon  insufficient 
evidence,  in  any  stories  that  tended  to  establish  the 
presence  of  a  mystical  and  supernatural  element  in 
human  affairs.  Parts  of  Locke's  "Essay,"  particularly 
the  first  book,  which  discusses  the  question  whether 
any  of  our  ideas  are  innate,  and  decides  it  in  the  nega- 


PHILOSOPHY.  507 

tive,  are  metaphysical.  Berkeley's  "  Hylas  and  Philo- 
nous,"  and  "  Principles  of  Human  Knowledge  "  are  the 
treatises  in  which  his  ideal  philosophy  is  expounded. 
As  this  philosophy  has  been  much  misunderstood,  and 
Reid  thought  that  he  had  said  a  clever  thing  when  he 
had  advised  Berkeley  to  test  its  truth,  and  the  reality 
of  matter,  by  knocking  his  head  against  a  post,  it  may 
serve  a  good  purpose  to  extract  the  following  remarks 
from  Lewes's  "  Biographical  History  of  Philosophy :  " — 

"When  Berkeley  denied  the  existence  of  matter,  he  meant  by 
*  matter'  that  unknown  substratum,  the  existence  of  which  Locke 
had  declared  to  be  a  necessary  inference  from  our  knowledge  of  quali- 
ties, but  the  nature  of  which  must  ever  be  altogether  hidden  from  us. 
Philosophers  had  assumed  the  existence  of  substance,  i.e.,  of  a  nou- 
menon  lying  underneath  all  phenomena,  a  substratum  supporting  all 
qualities,  a  something  in  which  all  accidents  inhere.  This  un- 
known substance  Berkeley  rejects.  It  is  a  mere  abstraction,  he  says. 
If  it  is  unknown,  unknowable,  it  is  a  figment,  and  I  will  none  of  it  ; 
for  it  is  a  figment  worse  than  useless ;  it  is  pernicious,  as  the  basis  of 
all  atheism.  If  by  matter  you  understand  that  which  is  seen,  felt, 
tasted,  and  touched,  then  I  say  matter  exists ;  I  am  as  firm  a  believer 
in  its  existence  as  any  one  can  be,  and  herein  I  ayree  with  the  mtlyar. 
If,  on  the  contrary,  you  understand  by  matter  that  occult  substratum 
which  is  not  seen,  not  felt,  not  tasted,  and  not  touched,  —  that  of 
which  the  senses  do  not,  can  not,  inform  you,  —  then  I  say  I  believe 
not  in  the  existence  of  matter,  and  herein  I  differ  from  the  philosophers, 
and  ayree  with  the  vulyar." 

In  support  of  this  view,  Berkeley's  own  words  are 
presently  quoted :  — 

"  I  do  not  argue  against  the  existence  of  any  one  thing  that  we 
can  apprehend  either  by  sensation  or  reflection.  That  the  things  I 
see  with  my  eyes,  and  touch  with  my  hands,  do  exist,  really  exist,  I 
make  not  the  least  question.  The  only  thing  whose  existence  I  deny 
is  that  which  philosophers  call  matter,  or  corporeal  substance.  And 
in  doing  this  there  is  no  damage  done  to  the  rest  of  mankind,  who,  I 
dare  say,  will  never  miss  it." 

Hume,  in  his  "  Inquiry  concerning  Human  Under- 
standing," begins  with  some  valuable  definitions,  which 


508  HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

may  be  considered  to  constitute  an  improvement,  so  far 
as  they  go,  on  the  terminology  of  Locke,  but  ends  with 
proposing  "sceptical  doubts,"  as  applicable  to  every 
possible  philosophical  proposition  which  the  mind  can 
entertain.  After  Hume,  the  celebrated  Kant  in  Ger- 
many took  up  the  metaphysical  debate,  and  produced 
his  u  Kritik  der  Reinen  Vernunft,"  l  a  work  which  makes 
an  epoch  in  philosophy.  Among  ourselves  Hume  was 
feebly  answered,  upon  obvious  common-sense  grounds, 
by  Reid  and  his  followers  ;  but  they  were  rather  psy- 
chologists than  metaphysicians.  Coleridge,  whose  gen- 
ius pre-eminently  fitted  him  to  excel  in  metaphysics, 
lias  left,  indeed,  much  that  is  of  the  liighest  value,  but 
in  a  discontinuous,  sketchy  condition,  and  with  large 
desiderata.  The  "Aids  to  Reflection"  is  the  work 
which  contains  more  of  his  mind  upon  the  deepest 
questions  than  any  other.  "  The  Friend,"  and  "  The 
Literary  Remains,"  while  they  illustrate  to  a  great 
extent  his  metaphysical  tenets,  belong  in  form  rather  to 
the  department  of  essays. 

Political  Science  :  Filmer,  Hobbes,  Milton,  Burke. 

Political  science,  as  might  have  been  expected  in  a 
country  with  such  an  eventful  political  history,  owes 
much  to  English  thinkers.  The  conservative  and  abso- 
lutist side  has  been  ably  and  warmly  argued  ;  but,  on  the 
whole,  the  palm  undoubtedly  rests  with  the  writers  on 
the  liberal  and  constitutional  side.  Sir  Robert  Filmer 
and  the  philosopher  Hobbes,  upon  widely  different 
grounds,  wrote  in  support  of  arbitrary  power.  In  his 
"  Patriarcha"  published  in  1680,  but  written  long  before, 
Filmer  maintained,  not  only  against  Milton  and  Grotius, 
but  also  against  St.  Thomas  and  Bellarmine,  that  men 
were  not  born  free,  but  slaves ;  and  that  monarchs 

1  Critique  of  Pure  Reason. 


PHILOSOPHY.  509 

reigned  with  a  patriarchal,  absolute,  and  unquestionable 
right,  derived,  like  that  of  Adam  over  his  own  household, 
immediately  from  God.  Hobbes  was  an  absolutist  on 
quite  other  grounds.  He  believed  in  no  divine  right  of 
kings ;  but  he  had  the  lowest  possible  opinion  of  sub- 
jects, that  is,  of  mankind  in  general,  and  thought  that 
to  place  power  in  the  hands  of  the  masses  was  the  sure 
way  to  bring  in  anarchy.  He  was,  therefore,  in  favor 
of  a  strong  central  government,  which  he  would  not 
allow  to  be  thwarted  in  its  task  of  repression  by  the 
licensed  meddling  of  the  persons,  whether  acting  di- 
rectly or  by  representation,  who  were  subjected  to  it. 
Hobbes's  political  system  is  unfolded  in  several  of  his 
works,  particularly  the  "  De  Give  "  (1642),  the  "  De 
Corpore  Politico "  (1650),  and  "  The  Leviathan  " 
(1651). 

On  the  other  side  occur  the  names  of  Fortescue  in 
the  fifteenth ;  Milton,  Algernon  Sidney,  Harrington, 
and  Locke  in  the  seventeenth  century;  and  Burke, 
Godwin,  and  Payne  in  the  eighteenth  ;  all  of  whom 
were  in  favor  of  liberal  principles  of  government,  how- 
ever wide  the  gulf,  in  spirit  and  practical  aims,  which 
separated  the  republican  Sidney  from  the  constitution- 
alist Locke,  or  the  author  of  "  The  Rights  of  Man  " 
from  the  upholder  of  the  sacredness  of  prescription. 
Milton's  "  Areopagitica  ;  or,  Speech  for  the  Liberty  of 
Unlicensed  Printing,"  though  in  form  a  mere  pamphlet, 
is  so  full  of  weighty  thoughts,  which  have  since  been 
°iopted  by  the  reason  of  civilized  Europe,  that  we 
prefer  to  consider  it  as  a  contribution  to  political  sci- 
ence. It  is  an  argument  for  the  freedom  of  the  press, 
and  is  perhaps  the  most  eloquent  —  certainly  one  of  the 
least  rugged  —  among  the  prose  works  of  Milton.  The 
following  is  one  of  the  most  important  passages.  After 
speaking  of  the  glorious  spectacle  of  a  great  nation 


510  HISTORY   OF    ENGLISH    LITKRATUIIE. 

"renewing  her  mighty  youth,"  and  producing  in 
boundless  profusion  the  richest  fruits  of  awakened  in- 
telligence, he  proceeds :  — 

"What  should  ye  do,  then?  Should  ye  suppress  all  this  flowery 
crop  of  knowledge  and  new  light  sprung  up  ;ind  yet  springing  daily 
in  this  city  ?  Should  ye  set  an  oligarchy  of  twenty  engrossers  over 
it,  to  bring  a  famine  upon  our  minds  again,  when  we  shall  know 
nothing  but  what  is  measured  to  us  by  their  bushel  ? J  Believe  it, 
lords  and  commons!  they  who  counsel  ye  to  such  a  suppression  do  as 
good  as  bid  ye  suppress  yourselves;  and  I  will  soon  show  how.  If  it 
be  desired  to  know  the  immediate  cause  of  all  this  free  writing  and 
free  speaking,  there  cannot  be  assigned  a  truer  than  your  own  mild 
and  free  and  humane  government;  it  is  the  liberty,  lord*  and  com- 
mons, which  your  own  valorous  and  happy  counsels  have  purchased 
us  —  liberty  which  i>  the  nurse  of  all  great  wits ;  this  is  that  which 
hath  ratified  and  enlightened  our  spirits  like  the  influence  of  heaven; 
this  is  that  which  hath  enfranchised,  enlarged,  and  lifted  up  our 
apprehension-,  degrees  above  themselves.  Ye  cannot  make  us  now 
Ifs-.  capable.  lr-s  knowing,  less  eagerly  pursuing  of  the  truth,  unless 
ye  first  make  yourselves,  that  made  us  so,  less  the  lovers,  less  the 
founders,  of  our  true  liberty.  We  can  grow  ignorant  again,  brutish, 
formal,  and  slavish,  as  ye  found  us;  but  you  then  imi*t  first  become 
that  which  ye  cannot  be,  —  oppressive,  arbitrary,  and  tyrannous, as  they 
were  from  whom  ye  have  freed  us.  That  our  hearts  are  now  more 
capacious  our  thoughts  more  erected  to  the  research  and  expectation 
of  greatest  and  exactest  things,  is  the  issue  of  your  own  virtue 
propagated  in  us;  ye  cannot  suppress  that,  unless  ye  re-enforce  an 
abrogated  and  merciless  law,  that  fathers  may  despatch  at  will  their 
own  children.  .  .  .  Give  me  the  liberty  to  know,  to  utter,  and  to 
argue  freely  according  to  conscience,  above  all  other  liberties." 

Harrington's  "  Oceana  "  has  been  already  noticed.2 
Locke's  two  "  Treatises  on  Government "  were  written 
as  a  reply  to  the  "  Patriarcha,"  and  embody  the 
famous  doctrine  of  an  "  original  compact "  between 
prince  and  people.  An  interesting  summary  of  them 
may  be  found  in  Hallam's  "  Literature  of  Europe." 
Among  Burke's  political  writings,  those  which  contain 

1  The  censors  of  books  are  compared  to  those  who  enfiross  or  fore- 
stall all  the  corn  in  the  market,  and  thus  create  an  artificial  scarcity. 

2  See  p.  218. 


PHILOSOPHY.  51 1 

the  clearest  and  fullest  statement  of  his  political  philos- 
ophy are,  the  "  Reflections  on  the  French  Revolution," 
and  the  "  Appeal  from  the  New  to  the  Old  Whigs." 
His  principles  were  constitutional  and  progressive,  but 
anti-revolutionary.  The  "  Appeal,"  &c.,  was  occa- 
sioned by  some  slighting  notice  taken  in  Parliament  of 
the  "  Reflections,"  as  the  work  of  a  renegade  Whig. 
Burke  endeavors  to  show  that  the  new  Whigs  have 
changed  their  principles,  and  not  he  ;  that  from  consti- 
tutionalists they  have  become  revolutionists.  The 
following  striking  passage  occurs  near  the  end  of  the 
treatise  :  — 

"  Place,  for  instance,  before  your  eyes  such  a  man  as  Montesquieu. 
Think  of  a  genius  not  born  in  every  country,  or  every  time ;  a  man 
gifted  by  nature  with  a  penetrating  aquiline  eye,  with  a  judgment 
prepared  with  the  most  extensive  erudition,  with  an  herculean 
robustness  of  mind,  and  nerves  not  to  be  broken  with  labor ;  a  man 
who  could  spend  twenty  years  in  one  pursuit.  Think  of  a  man,  like 
the  universal  patriarch  in  Milton  (who  had  drawn  up  before  him  in 
prophetic  vision  the  whole  series  of  the  generations  which  were  to 
issue  from  his  loins),  a  man  capable  of  placing  in  review,  after 
having  brought  together  from  the  east,  the  west,  the  north,  and  the 
south,  from  the  coarseness  of  the  rudest  barbarism  to  the  most  re- 
fined and  subtle  civilization,  all  the  schemes  of  government  which 
had  ever  prevailed  amongst  mankind,  weighing,  measuring,  collating, 
and  comparing  them  all,  joining  fact  with  theory,  and  calling  into 
council,  upon  all  this  infinite  assemblage  of  things,  all  the  specula- 
tions which  have  fatigued  the  understandings  of  profound  reasoners 
in  all  times !  Let  us  then  consider  that  all  these  were  but  so  many 
preparatory  steps  to  qualify  a  man  —  and  such  a  man,  tinctured 
with  no  national  prejudice,  with  no  domestic  affection,  —  to  admire, 
and  to  hold  out  to  the  admiration  of  mankind,  the  constitution  of 
England!  And  shall  we  Englishmen  revoke  to  such  a  suit?  Shall 
we,  when  so  much  more  than  he  has  produced  remains  still  to  be 
understood  and  admired,  instead  of  keeping  ourselves  in  the  schools 
of  real  science,  choose  for  our  teachers  men  incapable  of  being 
taught ;  whose  only  claim  to  know  is,  that  they  have  never  doubted ; 
from  whom  we  can  learn  nothing  but  their  own  indocility;  who 
would  teach  us  to  scorn  what  in  the  silence  of  our  hearts  we  ought 
to  adore?" 


512  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

In  the  "  Reflections,"  which  we  have  not  space  to 
examine  in  detail,  occurs  the  famous  passage  on  Marie 
Antoinette  and  the  "  ages  of  chivalry." 

Essays. 

An  essay,  as  its  name  implies,  is  an  endeavor,  within 
definite  limits  of  time  and  subject,  to  attain  to  truth. 
It  is  the  elucidation  by  thought  of  some  one  single 
topic,  of  which  the  mind  had  previously  possessed  an 
indistinct  notion.  The  essay-writer  stands  at  the 
opposite  pole  of  thought  to  the  system-monger ;  the 
first  is  ever  analyzing  and  separating,  the  second  group- 
ing and  generalizing.  This  style  of  writing,  speaking 
generally,  was  unknown  to  the  middle  ages :  it  arose 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  Nor  is  the  explanation 
obscure  or  far  to  seek.  The  general  tendency  of 
thought  in  the  middle  ages  was  to  totality ;  to  regard 
philosophy  as  one  whole,  truth  as  one,  religion  as  one, 
iiuture  as  one.  One  of  the  typical  books  of  the  middle 
ages,  the  "  Liber  Sententiarum,"  is  a  complete  theol- 
ogy,—  corpus  ikeolog'm :  it  traverses  the  entire  field. 
But  the  general  tendency  of  thought  in  modern  times 
has  been  to  separation  and  subdivision  ;  to  break  up 
wholes,  to  mistrust  generalizations ;  to  examine  the 
parts  severally,  and  attain  to  a  perfect  knowledge  of 
each  individual  part,  in  the  hope  of  ultimately  com- 
bining the  knowledge  of  particulars  into  a  sound  theory 
of  the  whole.  The  same  tendency  of  mind  which  has 
in  the  last  three  centuries  produced  and  rendered  popu- 
lar so  many  volumes  of  essays  and  detached  cogitations 
in  literature,  has  in  the  scientific  world  resulted  in 
the  innumerable  monographs,  reports,  and  papers,  by 
which  each  inquirer  into  nature,  in  his  own  special 
department,  contributes  to  the  already  enormous  stock 
of  particular  knowledge. 


PHILOSOPHY.  513 

Essays  do  not  include  political  tracts  or  pamphlets, 
from  which  we  may  easily  distinguish  them  by  consid- 
ering the  difference  in  the  ends  proposed.  The  end  of 
an  essay  is  knowledge  ;  the  end  of  a  political  tract  or 
pamphlet,  action.  Logic  appertains  to  the  former, 
rhetoric  to  the  latter.  The  essay-writer  has  answered 
his  purpose  if  he  presents  to  us  a  new  and  clearer  view 
of  the  subject  which  he  handles,  and  leads  us  to  think 
upon  it.  The  political  writer  has  answered  his  pur- 
pose, if,  whatever  the  view  may  be  which  he  wishes  to 
enforce,  his  arguments,  whether  they  be  sound  or 
specions,  tend  to  arouse  his  readers  to  action  in  the 
direction  pointed  out. 

The  heterogeneous  character  of  the  subjects  of  essays 
makes  it  useless,  if  not  impossible,  to  classify  them. 
An  essay  may  be  written  about  any  thing  whatever 
which  an  attentive  thinker  can  place  in  a  new  light,  or 
form  a  plausible  theory  about :  there  would,  therefore, 
be  no  end  to  the  division  and  subdivision.  We  shall 
merely  notice  some  of  the  most  remarkable  collections 
of  essays  in  our  literature.  Bacon's  essays,  concerning 
which  some  particulars  were  noted  at  p.  122,  are  the 
earliest  in  the  series.  As  a  specimen,  we  give  a  pas- 
sage from  the  essay  "  Of  Plantations,"  which  must  have 
been  one  of  the  latest  composed,  for  it  is  evident  from 
it  that  the  colony  of  Virginia  (founded  in  1605)  had 
then  been  in  existence  for  several  years  :  — 

"  Plantations  are  amongst  ancient,  primitive,  and  heroical  works. 
When  the  world  was  young,  it  begat  more  children ;  but,  now  it  is  old, 
it  begets  fewer ;  for  I  may  justly  account  new  plantations  to  be  the 
children  of  former  kingdoms.  I  like  a  plantation  in  a  pure  soil ;  that 
is,  where  people  are  not  displanted,  to  the  end  to  plant  in  others. 
For  else  it  is  rather  an  extirpation  than  a  plantation.  Planting  of 
countries  is  like  planting  of  woods ;  for  you  must  make  account  to 
lose  almost  twenty  years'  profit,  and  expect  your  recompense  in  the 
snd.  For  the  principal  thing  that  hath  been  the  destruction  of  most 


514  HISTORY   OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

plantations  hath  been  the  base  and  hasty  drawing  of  profit  in  the  first 
years.  It  is  true,  speedy  profit  is  not  to  be  neglected,  as  far  as  may 
stand  with  the  good  of  the  plantations,  but  no  farther.  It  is  a  shame- 
ful and  unblessed  thing,  to  take  the  scum  of  people,  and  wicked,  con- 
demned men,  to  be  the  people  with  whom  you  plant.  And  not  only 
so,  but  it  spoileth  the  plantation ;  for  they  will  ever  live  like  rogues, 
and  not  fall  to  work,  but  be  lazy,  and  do  mischief,  and  spend  victuals, 
and  be  quickly  weary,  and  then  certify  over  to  their  country,  to  the 
discredit  of  the  plantation.  .  .  .  Consider,  likewise,  what  commodities 
the  soil,  where  the  plantation  is,  doth  naturally  yield,  that  they  may 
some  way  help  to  defray  the  charge  of  the  plantation :  so  it  be  not,  as 
was  said,  to  the  untimely  prejudice  of  the  main  business,  as  it  hath 
fared  with  tobacco  in  Virginia.  Wood  commonly  aboundeth  but  too 
much ;  and  therefore  timber  is  fit  to  be  one.  If  there  be  iron  ore,  and 
streams  whereupon  to  set  the  mills,  iron  is  a  brave  commodity  where 
wood  aboundeth.  .  .  .  For  government,  let  it  be  in  the  hands  of  one, 
assisted  with  some  counsel;  and  let  them  have  commission  to  execute 
martial  laws,  with  some  limitation.  And,  above  all,  let  men  make  that 
profit  of  being  in  the  wilderness,  as  they  have  God  always,  and  his 
service,  before  their  eyes.  ...  If  you  plant  where  savages  are,  do  not 
only  c'ntrrtuin  them  with  trifles  and  gingles;  but  use  them  justly  and 
graciously,  with  sufficient  guard  nevertheless;  and  do  not  win  their 
favor  by  helping  them  to  invade  their  enemies,  but  for  their  defence 
it  is  not  amiss.  And  send  oft  of  them  over  to  the  country  that  plants, 
that  they  may  see  a  better  condition  than  their  own,  and  commend  it 
when  they  return." 

Feltham's  "  Resolves,"  Bishop  Hall's  "  Centuries  of 
Meditations  and  Vows,"  and  Browne's  "Religio  Medici," 
have  all  the  character  of  essays.  Hume's  "  Essays, 
Moral,  Political,  and  Literary,"  published  in  1742  and 
1T")2,  show  a  remarkable  union  of  practical  shrewdness 
with  power  of  close  and  searching  thought.  In  our 
own  age,  John  Foster's  "  Essa}rs  in  a  Series  of  Letters 
to  a  Friend  "  have  obtained  a  high  reputation.  They 
are  upon  ethical  subjects,  written  in  a  plain,  strong  style, 
and  profoundly  reasoned.  Lord  Macaulay's  "  Essays," 
most  of  which  were  originally  contributed  to  "The 
Edinburgh  Review,"  would  generally  fall,  according  to 
the  terminology  that  we  have  adopted,  under  the  head 
of  Criticism ;  and  the  same  remark  applies  to  Jeffrey's 
64  Essays." 


PHILOSOPHY.  515 

Criticism. 

Criticism  may  be,  (1)  philosophical,  (2)  literary,  (3) 
artistic.  Of  the  first  kind,  Bacon's  "Advancement  of 
Learning  "  is  a  splendid  instance.  After  having,  in  the 
first  book,  expatiated  in  that  beautiful  language,  not 
more  thoughtful  than  it  is  imaginative,  which  he  could 
command  at  pleasure,  upon  the  dignity  and  utility  of 
learning,  he  proceeds  in  the  second  part  to  consider 
what  are  the  principal  works  or  acts  of  merit  which 
tend  to  promote  learning.  These,  he  decides,  are  con- 
versant with,  (1)  the  places  of  learning,  (2)  the  books 
or  instruments  of  learning,  (3)  the  persons  of  the 
learned.  He  then  passes  in  review  the  chief  defects 
observable  in  the  existing  arrangements  for  the  promo- 
tion of  learning.  One  of  these  is,  that  "  there  hath  not 
been,  or  very  rarely  been,  any  public  designation  of 
writers  or  inquirers  concerning  such  parts  of  knowledge 
as  may  appear  not  to  have  been  already  sufficiently 
labored  or  undertaken ;  unto  which  point  it  is  an 
inducement  to  enter  into  a  view  and  examination,  what 
parts  of  learning  have  been  prosecuted,  and  what  omit- 
ted; for  the  opinion  of  plenty  is  among  the  causes  of 
want,  and  the  great  quantity  of  books  maketh  a  show 
rather  of  superfluity  than  lack ;  which  surcharge,  never- 
theless, is  not  to  be  remedied  by  making  no  more  books, 
but  by  making  more  good  books,  which,  as  the  serpent 
of  Moses,  might  devour  the  serpents  of  the  enchanters." 
The  object  of  the  work,  therefore,  is  to  institute  a  criti- 
cal survey  of  the  entire  field  of  learning,  with  a  view, 
partly  to  guide  public  patronage,  partly  to  stimulate 
voluntary  endeavors  to  cultivate  the  waste  places  indi- 
cated. And  this  survey  he  proceeds  to  make,  dividing 
all  learning  into  three  branches,  —  history,  philosophy, 
and  poetry,  —  and  noting  what  has  been  done,  what 
overlooked,  in  each. 


516  HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

2.  In  the  department  of  literary  criticism,  some  ad- 
mirable works  have  to  be  named.  The  earliest  and  one 
of  the  best  among  these  is  the  Sir  Philip  Sidney's 
"  Defence  of  Poesie  "  (mentioned  at  p.  123),  from 
which  we  must  find  room  for  an  extract,  describing  the 
invigorating  moral  effects  of  poetry  :  — 

"  Now,  therein,  of  all  sciences  (I  speak  still  of  human,  and  accord- 
/ng  to  the  human  conceit)  is  our  poet  the  monarch.  For  he  doth  not 
only  show  the  way,  but  giveth  so  sweet  a  prospect  into  the  way  as 
will  entice  any  man  to  enter  into  it:  nay,  he  doth,  as  if  your  journey 
should  lie  through  a  fair  vineyard,  at  the  very  first  give  you  a  cluster 
of  grapes,  that  full  of  that  taste  you  may  long  to  pass  further.  He 
beginneth  not  with  obscure  definitions,  which  must  blur  the  margin 
with  interpretations,  and  load  the  memory  with  doubtfulness;  but  he 
cometh  to  you  with  words  set  in  delightful  proportion,  either  accom- 
panied with,  or  prepared  for,  the  well-enchanting  skill  of  music;  and 
with  a  tale,  forsooth,  he  cometh  unto  you, —  with  a  tale  which  holdeth 
children  from  play,  and  old  men  from  the  chimney-comer;  and,  pre- 
tending no  more,  doth  Intend  the  winning  of  the  mind  from  wicked- 
ness to  virtue;  even  as  the  child  is  often  brought  to  take  most 
wholesome  things,  by  hiding  them  in  such  other  as  have  a  pleasant 
taste,  which,  if  one  should  begin  to  tell  them  the  nature  of  the  aloes 
or  rhul>;irl>;inun  they  should  receive,  would  sooner  take  their  physic 
at  their  ears  than  at  their  mouth.  So  is  it  in  men,  most  of  whom  are 
childish  in  the  best  things  till  they  be  cradled  in  \heir  graves:  glad 
they  will  be  to  hear  the  tales  of  Hercules,  Achilles,  Cyrus,  JEneas ; 
and  hearing  them  must  needs  hear  the  right  description  of  wisdom, 
valor,  and  justice,  which  if  they  had  been  barely  (that  is  to  say, 
philosophically)  set  out,  they  would  swear  they  be  brought  to  school 
again.  That  imitation  whereof  poetry  is,  hath  the  most  conveniency 
to  nature  of  all  other:  insomuch  that,  as  Aristotle  saith,  those  things 
which  in  themselves  are  horrible,  as  cruel  battles,  unnatural  monsters, 
are  made,  in  political  imitation,  delightful.  Truly  I  have  known  men, 
that  even  with  reading  '  Amadisde  Gaul,'  which,  God  knoweth,  want- 
eth  much  of  a  perfect  poesie,  have  found  their  hearts  moved  to  the 
exercise  of  courtesy,  liberality,  and  especially  courage.  Who  readeth 
^Eneas  carrying  old  Anchises  on  his  back,  that  wisheth  not  it  were 
his  fortune  to  perform  so  excellent  an  act?  Whom  do  not  those 
words  of  Turnus  move  (the  tale  of  Turnus  having  planted  his  image 
in  the  imagination)?  — 

'  Fugientem  haec  terra  videbit  ? 
Usque  adeone  mori  miseruin  est  ? '  ' 


PHILOSOPHY.  517 

The  critical  passages  which  occur  in  Johnson's  "  Lives 
of  the  Poets  "  appear  to  be  in  the  main  just  and  sound. 
Shakspearian  criticism  has  given  rise  to  an  entire 
library  of  its  own.  Fielding  led  the  way,  by  the  ad- 
miring yet  discerning  notices  of  the  great  dramatist 
which  he  introduced  in  his  "  Tom  Jones."  The  prefaces 
and  notes  of  Pope  and  Johnson  followed  ;  at  a  later  date 
appeared  Hazlitt's  "  Characters,"  and  the  critical  notices 
in  Coleridge's  "  Literary  Remains." 

But  the  greatest  achievement  of  literary  criticism  that 
we  can  point  to  is  Hallam's  "  Literature  of  Europe  in 
the  Fifteenth,  Sixteenth,  and  Seventeenth  Centuries." 
This  is  a  book  of  which  the  sagacity  and  the  calmness 
are  well  matched  with  the  profound  erudition.  A  cer- 
tain coldness  or  dryness  of  tone  is  often  noticeable, 
which  seems  not  to  be  wondered  at ;  for  it  is  not  easy 
to  imagine  that  the  man  who  spent  so  large  a  portion 
of  his  moral  existence  in  surveying  the  labors  and  mas- 
tering the  thoughts  of  men  of  the  utmost  diversity  of 
aspiration  and  opinion  could  have  felt  a  very  warm 
personal  interest  in  any  of  their  systems. 

Among  works  on  poetical  criticism,  we  can  scarcely 
err  in  assigning  a  high  and  permanent  place  to  Mr. 
Thackeray's  "  Lectures  on  the  English  Humorists." 

3.  In  artistic  criticism,  the  same  remark  might  be 
hazarded  as  to  Mr.  Ruskin's  "  Modern  Painters "  and 
44  Stones  of  Venice."  Nothing  else  of  much  importance 
can  be  named,  except  Horace  Walpole's  "Anecdotes 
of  Painting,"  and  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds's  "  Lectures." 

44 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


ON  ENGLISH  METRES. 

THERE  exists  no  work  of  any  authority,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  upon  the  metres  used  by  our  poets,  except  Dr.  Guest's 
"  History  of  English  Rhymes,"  which  is  too  long  and  too 
intricate  for  general  use.  In  the  absence,  then,  of  better 
guidance,  the  following  brief  description  and  classification 
of  English  metres  may  be  of  use  to  students :  — 

Metre  is  the  arrangement  into  verse  of  definite  measures 
of  sounds,  definitely  accented.  Thus  the  hexameter  is  the 
arrangement  in  lines  of  six  equivalent  quantities  of  sound, 
called  feet,  each  of  which  consists,  or  has  the  value,  of  two 
long  syllables,  and  is  accented  on  the  first  syllable.  The 
heroic  metre,  when  strictly  regular,  is  the  arrangement  in 
rhymed  couplets  of  five  feet,  each  foot  being  equivalent  to  an 
iambus  (a  short  and  a  long  syllable) ,  and  accented  on  the 
last  syllable.  In  practice,  spondees  and  trochees  are  often 
introduced,  the  accent  is  often  laid  on  the  first  syllable  of  a 
foot,  and  there  are  frequently  not  more  than  four,  sometimes 
not  more  than  three,  accents  in  a  line. 

Rhyme  is  the  regular  recurrence  in  metre  of  similar  sounds. 
There  are  four  principal  kinds,  —  the  perfect,  the  alliterative, 
the  assonantal,  and  the  consonantal.  In  the  perfect  rhyme, 
the  rhyming  syllables  correspond  throughout :  in  other  words, 
they  are  identical.  It  is  common  in  French  poetry,  but  rare 
in  English;  e.g., — 

"  Selons  divers  besoins,  il  est  une  science 
D'etendre  les  liens  de  notre  conscience."  — MOLI£RE. 
44*  521 


522  APPENDIX. 

The  alliterative  rhyme  is  the  correspondence  of  the  initial 
consonants  of  the  rlryming  syllables.  This  is  the  ordinary 
rhythm  of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  and  also  of  the  Scandinavian 
poetry;  e.g.,— 

"  Eadward  kiiige,  engla  hlaford 

Sende  sothfoeste  sawle  to  criste 

/  /          /      / 

On  godes  waera,  gast  haligue."  l 

These  lines,  which  represent  the  most  common  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  rhythms,  have  each  four  accents,  and  either  three  or 
two  rhyming  syllables,  which  are  alwa}rs  accented.  When 
the  rlryming  S3'llables  begin  with  vowels,  these  vowels  are 
usually  different,  though  not  alwaj-s. 

The  assonantal  rhyme  is  the  correspondence  of  the  vowels 
merely  in  the  rhyming  syllables.  It  is  of  two  kinds  :  in  the 
first,  the  vowel  ends  the  syllable ;  in  the  second,  it  is  fol- 
lowed by  a  consonant,  or  a  consonant  and  vowel.  The  first 
kind  occurs  continually  in  English  poetry  ;  the  second,  never  ; 
but  it  is  a  favorite  rhyme  with  the  Spanish  poets.  Ex- 
amples :  — 

(1)  "If  she  seem  not  so  to  me, 

What  care  I  how  good  she  be  ?  " 

(2)  "  Ferid  los,  cavalleros,  por  amor  de  caridad ; 

Yo  soy  Ruy  Diaz  el  Cid,  Cainpeador  de  Bibar."  2 

Ballad  of  the  Cid. 

The  consonantal  rhyme  is  the  ordinary  rhyme  of  English 
poetry :  it  is  the  correspondence  of  the  vowel  and  the  final 
consonant  or  consonants  in  the  rhyming  syllables.  Exam- 
ples :  — 

"  Golden  boys  and  girls  all  must, 
Like  chimney-sweepers,  come  to  dust." 

1  From  Guest's  Rhythms,  ii.  70.    His  translation  is,  — 

"  King  Edward,  lord  of  the  Engle, 
Sent  his  righteous  soul  to  Christ, 
(In  God's  promise  trusting)  a  spirit  holy." 

3  "  Smite  them,  knights,  for  the  love  of  charity; 
I  am  Ruy  Diaz  the  Cid,  champion  of  Bivar." 


ENGLISH  METRES.  523 

All  that  has  been  said  hitherto  applies  on!}-  to  single 
rhymes,  the  masculine  rh3rme  of  the  Italians.  The  double, 
or  feminine  rhyme,  which  is  the  ordinary  rhyme  of  Italian 
poetry,  is  also  common  with  us.  The  first  S3Tllables  form 
always  a  consonantal  or  assonantal  (No.  1)  rhyme  ;  the  sec- 
ond s}ilables,  a  perfect  rhyme.  Examples  :  — 

"  Ecco  da  mille  voci  unita?/ien-ie, 
Gerusalemme  salutar  si  se/i-te."  —  TASSO:  Geru.  Liber. 

"  And  join  with  thee  calm  Peace  and  Qui-et, 
Spare  Fast,  that  oft  with  Gods  doth  di-et" 

In  the  triple  rhyme,  called  "  sdrucciola"  by  the  Italians, 
the  first  S3'llables  follow  the  same  rule  as  in  the  double 
rhyme ;  the  second  and  third  must  be,  in  English  poetry  at 
least,  perfect  rhymes.  Example  :  — 

"  Kings  may  be  blest,  but  Tarn  was  glo-ri-ous, 
O'er  all  the  ills  of  life  victo-ri-ous." 

Before  proceeding  further,  it  is  necessary  to  enumerate  the 
principal  kinds  of  feet  used  in  English  poetry.  A  long  syl- 
lable is  represented  by  the  mark  (~),  a  short  syllable  by  the 
mark  (w).1  Two  short  syllables  are  equivalent  to,  or  have 
the  metrical  value  of,  one  long  syllable ;  except  at  the  end 
of  a  line,  where  one,  two,  and  even  occasionally  three  short 
syllables  may  be  introduced  ex  abundantly  or  by  way  of  re- 

1  In  English  poetry,  length  or  quantity  depends  almost  entirely 
upon  accent.  Accented  syllables  are  long,  unaccented  short.  In 
Greek  and  Latin  poetry,  as  is  well  known,  quantity  is  something  in- 
trinsic in  each  syllable,  and  depends  upon  the  nature  of  the  vowel,  and 
the  consonant  or  consonants  following  it.  Our  ears,  trained  to  mark 
the  accents  only,  take  little  notice  of  this  kind  of  quantity;  yet  those 
poets  who  utterly  neglect  it  are  felt  to  write  roughly  and  unmelodi- 
ously,  though  most  of  us  could  not  explain  distinctly  the  grounds  of 
the  feeling.  A  Koman  ear  could  not  have  endured  such  a  dactyl  as 

far  in  the,  because  to  it  the  in  would  be  made  irredeemably  long  by 
position.     This  we  scarcely  notice,  but  even  an  English  ear  would 

stumble  at  such  a  dactyl  as,  e.g.,  far  midst  the. 


524  APPENDIX. 

dundancy;   and  must  be  considered  as  having  no  metric* 
value.     The  feet  most  used  are,  — 

The  spondee  ( ) 

The  iambus  (w_) 

The  trochee  (_  „) 

The  dactyl  (_  ^  w) 

The  anapaest  (w  ^  _) 

The  amphiambus  l  (w  _  w) 

English  metres  may  be  divided  into,  1 ,  the  unrhymed ;  4, 
the  rhymed.  The  first,  in  which  a  comparatively  small  por- 
tion of  our  poetry  is  written,  may  be  quickly  disposed  of. 
The}'  are  of  three  kinds  :  hexameters,  blank  verse,  and  choral 
metres.  The  general  rule  governing  the  formation  of  Eng- 
lish hexameters  has  been  already  given ;  it  need  only  be 
added,  that  the  last  or  sixth  foot  must  always  be  a  spondee, 
and  the  fifth  ordinarily  a  dactyl,  though  a  spondee  is  also 
admissible.  Example :  — 

"  Felt  she  in  |  myriad  |  springs  her  |  sources  |  far  in  the  |  mountains  | 

Stirring,  col-|lecting,  |  heaving,  up-| rising,  f  forth  out- [flowing.  |" 

CLOUGH. 

Blank  verse  is  a  continuous  metre,  consisting,  in  its  most 
perfect  form,  of  lines  containing  five  iambuses,  each  iambus 
being  accented  on  the  last  syllable.  In  other  words,  it  is  a 
decasyllabic  metre,  having  the  second,  fourth,  sixth,  eighth, 
and  tenth  syllables  accented.  We  have  not  space  to  discuss 
here  all  the  variations  from  this  form,  which  are  numerous  ; 
but  the  student  will  find  the  subject  ably  handled  in  Johnson's 
papers,  in  "The  Rambler,"  on  Milton's  versification.  The 
following  examples  illustrate  the  principal  variations,  which 
affect,  1,  the  position  of  the  accents:  2,  their  number;  3, 
the  termination  of  the  line  :  — 

1  Using  the  analogy  of  the  Homeric  6tna{  up<j>tKvireM.ov  I  have,  for 
the  sake  of  convenience,  substituted  this  term  for  the  more  usual 
"amphibrachys,"  from  vvliich  it  is  impossible  to  form  an  adjective. 


ENGLISH  METRES.  525 


0  When  down  J  along  |  by  pleajsant  Temjpe's  stream  I  (1) 

Left  for  |  repenjtance,  none  |  for  par | don  left  |  (2) 

xxx  x 

In-fi-Jnite  wrath.  I  and  inlfi-nite  I  despair  I  ) 

/  (3) 
How  o-|vercorae  j  this  dire  |  ca-lam-jity  j    ) 

X  XX 

To  the  J  last  syl-|lable  of  |  recor-|ded  time  |  (4) 
To-mor-|row  and  |  to-mor-|row  and  |  to-mor-|row  |  (5) 

X  X  X  X  X  w 

Who  can  |  be  wise,  |  amazed,  |  temperate,  J  and  fu-|ri-ous  |  (6) 

In  (1),  a  strictly  regular  line,  the  accents  are  five  in  num- 
ber, and  occupy  their  normal  positions.  In  (2)  they  are  still 
five  ;  but  the  first  syllable  is  accented,  instead  of  the  second. 
In  each  of  the  two  examples  of  (3)  there  are  but  four  accents, 
differently  placed  in  each  line.  In  (4)  there  are  but  three 
accents.  In  (5)  there  is  one,  and  in  (6)  two,  redundant 
syllables. 

In  most  English  decasyllabic  verse,  whether  blank  or 
rhymed,  the  line  with  four  accents  predominates.  It  is  often 
possible  to  find  a  dozen  lines  in  succession  so  accented  in 
Shakspeare  and  Milton.  But  in  Pope's  decasyllabics,  as 
might  be  expected  from  so  perfect  a  versifier,  the  line  with 
five  accents  predominates.  The  effect  of  the  variation  in  the 
position  of  the  accents  is  to  prevent  the  monotony  which 
would  arise  from  the  perpetual  recurrence  of  iambuses.  It 
answers  the  same  purpose  as  the  free  intermixture  of  dactyls 
and  spondees  in  the  hexameter.  The  effect  of  the  reduction 
in  the  number  of  accents  is  to  quicken  the  movement  of  the 
line.  This  explains  why  lines  of  five  accents  are  the  excep- 
tion, not  the  rule,  in  Shakspeare ;  for  the  dramatic  move- 
ment, as  representing  dialogue,  and  the  actual  conflict  of 
passions,  is  essentially  more  rapid  than  either  the  epic  or 
didactic.  With  less  justification  Wordsworth  in  "  The  Ex- 
cursion "  frequently  introduces  lines  of  only  three  accents, 
such  as,  — 

"  By  the  deformities  of  brutish  vice." 


526  APPENDIX. 

Such  lines  can  seldom  be  so  managed  as  to  make  other 
than  an  unpleasing  impression  on  the  ear.  The  license  of 
redundant  syllables  is  allowed  in  dramatic,  but  not  in  epic 
verse.  Milton  does  indeed  use  it,  but  sparingly.  In  eighty 
lines  taken  at  random  from  the  u  Paradise  Lost,"  I  have 
found  four  instances  of  redundancy  ;  in  the  same  number  of 
lines  similarly  taken  from  the  play  of  "  King  John,"  eighteen 
instances. 

Choral  metres  may  be  designated  according  to  the  kind  of 
foot  which  predominates  in  them.  Those  used  in  Southey's 
41  Thalaba  "  are  dactylic  or  iambic  :  — 

"  In  the  Dom-  |  daniel  |  caverns, 
Under  the  |  roots  of  the  |  ocean ; " 

And, — 

"Sail  on,  |  sail  on,  |  quoth  Tha-|laba, 
Sail  on,  |  in  Al-|lah's  name.  |  " 

In  "Queen  Mab  "  they  are  iambic,  and  in  the  u  Strayed 
Reveller  "  trochaic  :  — 

"  Faster,  |  faster,  | 
O  |  Circe,  |  Goddess.  |  " 

RHYMED    METRES. 

Every  English  rhymed  metre  is  in  one  of  three  measures, 
the  iambic,  the  trochaic,  the  triple. 

Again,  all  rhymed  metres  are  either  continuous  or  in 
stanzas. 

Continuous  Verse. 

I.  The  following  is  a  list  of  continuous  rhyming  metres, 
in  iambic  measure  :  — 

1.  Tetrasyllables  ;  e.g., — 

"  The  steel  |  we  touch,  | 
Forced  ne'er  |  so  much,  | 
Yet  still  |  removes  | 
To  that  |  it  loves.  |  "  —  DKAYTON  (in  Guest). 


ENGLISH  METRES.  527 

2.  Octosyllabics,    having,    in    strictness,    four  accents  ; 
e.g.,— 

"  Woe  worth  |  the  chase!  |  woe  worth  |  the  day!  I 
That  cost  |  thy  life,  |  my  gal-|lant  gray!  |  " 

This  metre  is  extremely  common  ;  most  of  the  old  romances 
are  in  it,  as  well  as  Scott's  and  Byron's  romantic  poems 
(except  "  Lara"  and  "  The  Corsair  "),  "  Hudibras,"  "  Lai- 
la  Rookh,"  &c. 

3.  Decasj'llabics,  having,  in  strictness,  five  accents.     If 
rhyming  in  couplets,  they  form  the  famous  heroic  metre  :  — 

"Awake!  |  my  St.  |  John,  leave  |  all  mea-|ner  things  | 
To  low  |  ambi-|tion,  and  |  the  pride  |  of  kings.  |  " 

It  is  needless  to  remark  that  an  enormous  quantity  of  verse 
has  been  composed  in  this  metre.  Sometimes  the  rhymes 
occur  irregularly,  as  in  "  Lycidas  :  "  — 

"  Fame  is  |  the  spur  |  that  the  |  clear  spirit  |  doth  raise,  | 
(That  last  |  infir-|mity  |  of  nojble  minds)  j 
To  scorn  |  delights  |  and  live  |  labo-|rious  days,  |  "  &c. 

Endecas3'llabics,  which  constitute  the  heroic  metre  of  the 
Italians,  fall,  in  our  metrical  s}Tstem,  under  the  description 
of  redundant  lines.  As  exceptions  to  the  decasyllabic  rule, 
they  occur  very  frequently ;  but  still  only  serve  to  prove  that 
rule,  like  other  exceptions. 

4.  The  Alexandrine,  or  twelve-syllable  metre,  having  in 
strictness  six  accents.     This  is  the  metre  used  by  some  of 
our  old  rhyming  chroniclers,  and  by  Drayton  in  his  "  Poly- 
olbion  ;  "  it  is  also  the  heroic  metre  of  France  :  but  with  us 
it  has  fallen  into  disuse  for  three  centuries.     Example  :  — 

"The  black  |  and  da"rk-|  some  nights,  |  the  bright  |  and  glad-|  some  days 
Indiff-|erent  are  |  to  him,  |  his  hope  |  on  God  |  that  stays." 

DBAYTON  (in  Guest). 

5.  The  fourteen-sj-llable  metre,  with  seven  accents.     This 
measure  occurs  in  some  old  metrical  legends,  and  was  used 
by  Chapman  in  his  translation  of  the  Iliad  ;  but  it  is  lumber- 


528  APPENDIX. 

ing  and  unwieldy,  and  as  such  had  long  been  laid  aside  by 
pur  poets,  until  revived  by  Mr.  F.  Newman,  who  stripped  it 
of  rhyme,  and  enriched  it  with  a  redundant  syllable  :  — 

"O  gen- 1  tie  friend!  |  if  thou  |  and  I  |  from  this  |  encoun-|ter  sea- 1  ping, 
Hereaf-|termight  |  for-e-jverbe  |  from  eld  |  and  death  |  exeiiip-|ted." 

The  following  is  from  Chapman  :  — 

"  To  all  |  which  Jove's  |  will  gave  |  effect;  |  from  whom  |  strife  first  | 

begunne  | 
Betwixt  |  Atri-|des,  king  |  of  men,  |  and  The-|tis'  god-|like  sonne.  |  " 

Combinations  of  some  of  these  five  metres  have  been 
occasionally  emplo3'ed,  but  with  indifferent  success.  Thus 
Surrey  joined  the  fourteen-syllable  metre  to  the  Alexan- 
drine:— 

"When  so-|mer  took  |  in  hand  |  the  win-|ter  to  |  assaile,  | 
With  force  |  of  might  |  and  ver-|tue  great  |  his  stor-|my  blasts  |  to 
quail.  |  " 

II.  Trochaics.  —  In  continuous  verse,  two  trochaic  measures 
are  in  use,  —  the  fifteen  syllable  and  the  seven  syllable.  In 
the  latter,  eight-syllable  lines,  containing  four  full  trochees, 
are  of  common  occurrence ;  but  the  characteristic  line  of  the 
measure  is  of  seven  syllables,  arid  contains  three  trochees 
and  a  long  syllable. 

1.  The  fifteen-syllable  trochaic  line  is,  in  fact,  a  combina- 
tion of  the  eight  syllable  and  the  seven  syllable.     It  is  not 
common  ;  the  best  example  of  it  is  4 '  Locksley  Hall :  "  — 

"  Fool !  a-|gain  the  |  dream,  the  |  fancy||but  1 1  know  my  |  words  were  | 

wild,  | 

But  I  |  count   the  |  gray  bar-jbarian  ||  lower  |  than  the  |  Christian  | 
child. 

2.  The  seven-s}Tllable  measure,  both  in  continuous  verse, 
and,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  in  stanzas,  was  a  great  favor- 
ite with  Keats  and  Shelley.     In  it  the  latter  composed  his 
"Lines  written  in  the  Euganean  Hills,"  and  Keats  his  "  Ode 


ENGLISH  METRES.  529 

on  the  Poets,"  and  "The  Mermaid  Tavern."  Shakspeare 
also  used  it,  as  in  the  Hues  beginning,  — 

"  On  a  |  day,  a-|lack  the  |  day!  |  " 

The  intermixture  of  eight-syllable  lines  is  exemplified  in  the 
following  quotation  :  — 

"  Thus  ye  |  live  on  |  high,  and  |  then  | 
On  the  |  earth  ye  |  live  a-  |  gain  ;  | 
And  the  |  souls  ye  |  left  be-|hind  you,  | 
Teach  us,  |  here,  the  |  way  to  |  find  you.  |  " 

Other  mixed  measures  occasionally  occur,  as  in  Shak- 
speare' s  "  Crabbed  Age  and  Youth,"  &c.,  which  contains 
fives,  sixes,  and  sevens. 

III.  In  triple  measures  there  is  but  one  accent  for  every 
three  syllables  ;  while,  in  the  iambic  and  trochaic,  there  is 
one  for  every  two.  There  is  a  close  analogy  between  poetry 
in  these  measures,  and  music  in  triple  time  ;  a  dancing  light- 
ness and  gliding  rapidity  are  characteristic  of  both.  They 
are  of  three  kinds,  according  to  the  foot  which  predominates 
in  them,  —  dactylic,  anapaestic,  and  amphiambic.  I  can 
recollect  no  instances  of  the  use  of  a  triple  measure  in  con- 
tinuous verse,  except  Campbell's  "  Lochiel  "  and  Walsh's 
"Despairing  Lover."  The  former  is  in  amphiambic  endeca- 
s^yllabic  rhyming  couplets,  each  line  containing  three  arnphU 
ambuses  and  an  iambus,  — 

"  Lochiel,  |  Lochiel,  |  beware  of  |  the  day  | 
When  |  the  Lowlands  |  shall  meet  thee  |  in  battle  |  array;  |  " 

the  latter  in  amphiambic  fives  and  sixes  ;  each  line  contain- 
ing either  an  amphiambus  and  an  iambus,  or  two  amphiam- 
buses;  e.g,.  — 

"  Though  |  his  suit  was  |  rejected,  | 
He  sadly  |  reflected  | 
That  |  a  lover  |  forsaken  | 
A  new  love  |  may  get,  | 

But  |  a  neck  that's  |  once  broken  I 


Can  never    be  set. 


45 


530  APPENDIX. 

In  these  examples,  the  words  "  when,"  "  though," 
"  that,"  and  "  but  "  are  redundant  syllables. 

Stanza*. 

The  varieties  of  the  stanza  or  stave  are  almost  countless ; 
some  of  the  most  common  forms  only  can  be  noticed  here. 
I  again  adopt  the  division  into  iambic,  trochaic,  and  triple 
measures. 

1.  1.  The  decasyllabic  quatrain,  or  four-line  stave,  with 
alternating   rhymes.     Davenant's     "  Gondibert,"   Drj'den's 
"Elegy   on  Cromwell"  and    "  Annus   Mirabilis,"   Gray's 
"  Eleg}*,"  and  many  other  considerable  poems,  are  in  this 
metre.     A  specimen  of  it  may  be  found  at  p.  93. 

2.  The   six-line   stave   is   not  uncommon ;  it  is  used  by 
Southwell  in  his  preUy  poems,  "  Time  goes  by  Turns,"  and 
"  Scorn  not  the  Least."     It  is  the  preceding  four-line  slave, 
with  the  addition  of  a  rhj'ming  couplet  at  the  end. 

3.  The  Chaucerian  heptastich,  or  seven-line  decasyllabic 
stave.     It  has  three  rhymes, — one  connecting  the  first  and 
third  lines ;  another,  the  second,  fourth,  and  fifth ;  and  the 
third,  the  sixth  and  seventh  lines.     For  an  example,  see  pp. 
451,2.     Down  to  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  no  measure  was  a 
greater  favorite  with  our  poets  than  this. 

4.  The  ottava  rima,  or  eight-line  decasyllabic  stave.    This 
is  the  heroic  metre  of  the  Italians,  in  which  Tasso  and  Ari- 
osto  wrote.     With  us  it  has  been  seldom  used  ;  the  chief  ex- 
ample is  "  Don  Juan."    It  has  three  rhymes,  thus  arranged  : 
1,3,  5;  2,  4,  6;  7,8. 

5.  The  Spenserian  stanza,  or  nine-line  decasyllabic  stave, 
closed  by  an  Alexandrine.     It  also  has  three  rhymes,  thus 
arranged:  1,  3;  2,  4,  5,  7 ;  6,  8,  9.     For  examples,  see  p. 
449. 

6.  The   sonnet,   or  fourteen-line   decasyllabic    stave,   of 
which   there   are   several  varieties.     The  sonnets  of  Shak- 
speare  scarcely  deserve  the  name  in  a  metrical  sense,  their 
construction  being  so  inartificial.     Thej*  have  no  fewer  than 
seven  rhymes,  and  consist  merely  of  three  quatrains,  with 


ENGLISH  METEES.  531 

alternating  rhymes,  followed  by  a  rhyming  couplet.  All  our 
other  poets,  so  far  as  I  know,  follow,  in  writing  sonnets,  the 
Petrarcan  model,  with  some  unimportant  deviations.  The 
sonnet  of  Petrarch  is  composed  of  two  quatrains,  with  ex- 
treme and  mean  rhymes,1  two  in  number ;  followed  by  six 
lines,  of  which  the  rhymes  are  arranged  in  several  different 
ways.  The  most  ordinary  case  is  that  in  which  the  six  lines 
have  but  two  rhymes,  and  are  arranged  in  three  rlryming 
couplets.  Milton's  sonnet  on  his  deceased  wife  is  an 
example  of  this  kind.  If  the  six  lines  have  three  rhymes, 
they  usually  follow  each  other  in  order,  as  shown  in  the  fol- 
lowing passage,  taken  from  Milton's  sonnet  to  Cyriack 

Skinner :  — 

. 

"  To  measure  life  learn  thou  betimes,  and  know 
Towards  solid  good  what  leads  the  nearest  way; 
For  other  things  mild  Heaven  a  time  ordains, 
And  disapproves  that  care,  though  wise  in  show, 
That  with  superfluous  burden  loads  the  day, 
And  when  God  sends  a  cheerful  hour,  refrains." 

Other  varieties  of  arrangement  may  be  found  in  the  son- 
nets of  Drummond,  Milton,  and  Wordsworth  ;  but  they  only 
affect  the  six  concluding  lines.  The  two  opening  quatrains, 
with  their  two  rhymes,  and  the  peculiar  arrangement  of  these 
rhymes,  are  a  fixed  element  in  the  sonnet.  It  has  generally, 
at  least  in  Italian  poetry,  four,  and  must  never  have  more 
than  five  rhymes. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  enumerate  all  the  different  kinds  of 
staves  formed  out  of  octosyllabics,  and  the  combination  of 
these  with  shorter  lines.  Three  of  these  staves,  the  octosyl- 
labic quatrain,  the  quatrain  in  eights  and  sixes,  and  the  qua- 
train in  sixes,  with  the  third  line  octosyllabic,  are  commonly 
called,  long  measure,  common  measure,  and  short  meas- 
ure. The  six-line  stave,  in  eights  and  sixes,  was  a  favorite 
measure  with  the  old  romance-writers.  I  call  it  the  "Sir 
Thopas  metre,"  because  Chaucer  uses  it  for  his  "  Rime  of 

1  That  is,  rhymes  connecting  the  first  with  the  fourth,  and  the 
second  with  the  third,  lines. 


532  APPENDIX. 

Sir  Thopas,"  in  the  Canterbury  Tales.  A  rough  specimen 
of  it  may  be  seen  at  p.  56.  The  eight-line  stave,  formed 
of  two  quatrains  in  eights,  or  in  eights  and  sixes,  with  alter- 
nating rhymes,  is  also  common.  But  enough  has  now  been 
said  to  enable  the  student  to  recognize  and  describe  for  him- 
self any  iambic  measure  that  he  may  meet  with. 

II.  Trochaic  staves,  though  much  used  by  our  poets,  do 
not  present  the  same  well-marked  forms  as  the  iambic  staves. 
The  predominant  line  is  of  seven  syllables,  that  is,  contains 
three  trochees  and  a  long  syllable.     However,  octosyllabic 
lines  of  four  trochees  are  of  constant  occurrence  in  heptasyl- 
labic  staves.     The  six-line  stave  in  sevens,  exemplified  by 
the  lines  at  p.  446,  by  Jonson's  u  Hymn  to  Diana"  (1), 
and  many  other  pieces,  and  the  eight-line  stave  in  eights  and 
sevens,  exemplified  by  Glover's  "  Hosier's  Ghost  "  (2),  are 
perhaps  the  most  important  among  pure  trochaic  staves :  — 

(1)  "Queen  ami  |  huntress,  |  chaste  and  |  fair,  | "  &c. 

(2)  "  As  near  I  Porto-  |  bello  |  lying  | 

On  the  |  ge~ntly  |  swelling  |  flood.  |  " 

A  very  beautiful  metre  sometimes  results  from  the  combina- 
tion of  a  trochaic  with  an  iambic  measure.  Thus  in  Shel- 
ley's "Skylark"  (see  p.  455),  a  trochaic  quatrain  in  sixes 
and  fives  is  followed  by  an  Alexandrine,  the  length  and 
weight  of  which  serves  beautifully  to  balance  and  tone  down 
the  light  joyousness  of  the  trochaics.  Shelley  has  given  us 
another  beautiful  combination,  that  of  trochees  with  dactyls. 
Example  :  — 

"  When  the  |  lamp  i's  |  shattered,  | 
The  |  light  in  the  |  du'st  lies  |  dead,  |  "&c. 

III.  In  triple  measures,   three  important  staves  may  be 
distinguished, — the   quatrain,   the  six-line   stave,   and   the 
eight-line  stave.     Each  of  these  three,  again,  may  be  either 
dactylic,  anapaestic,  or  amphiambic  ;  but  the  last  is  infinitely 
the  most  common  variety  of  the  three. 


ENGLISH  METRES.  533 

1.  Quatrains.  — The  dactylic  quatrain,  each  line  of  which 
contains  three  dactyls,  followed  either  by  a  long  syllable  or 
a  trochee,  is  not  very  common.  There  is  an  example  in  one 
of  Byron's  "  Hebrew  Melodies,"  —  the  "  Song  of  Saul  before 
his  Last  Battle:  "  — 

"  Farewell  to  |  others,  but  I  never  we  |  part,  | 
Heir  to  my  j  royalty,  |  son  of  my  |  heart ;  |  " 

and,  again,  — 
"  Brightest  and  |  best  of  the  I  sons  of  the  |  morning.  |  "  — HEBER. 

The  anapaestic  quatrain  is  distinguishable  from  the  dactylic 
by  the  fact  of  its  commencing  with  an  anapaest.  In  triple 
measures,  the  foot  with  which  a  poem  opens  is  nearly  always 
a  key  to  its  metre.  In  the  following  example  spondees  are 
mixed  with  the  anapaests  :  — 


"  Not  a  drum  |  was  heard,  |  not  a  fu-|neral  note.  |  —  WOLFE. 

A  purer  specimen  may  be  found  in  one  of  the  Hebrew  melo- 
dies, in  which  the  line  contains  three  anapaests :  — 

•'  And  the  voice  |  of  my  mourn-|ing  is  o'er,  | 
And  the  moun-|taTns  behold  |  me  no  more.  |  " 

The  amphiambic  quatrain,  in  which  each  line  has  either 
four  amphiambuses,  or  three  with  an  iambus,  is  the  metre  of 
a  great  number  of  ballads  and  songs.  The  lines  are  some- 
times coupled,  sometimes  alternate.  Examples  :  — 

"  I  saw  from  I  the  beach,  when  |  the  morning  |  was  shining,  | 
A  bark  o'er  |  the  waters  |  move  glorious-]  ly  on.  |  "  —  MOORE. 

"  Count  Albert  |  has  armed  him  |  the  Paynim  |  among,  | 
Though  |  his  heart  it  |  was  false,  yet  |  his  arm  it  |  was  strong." 

SCOTT. 

2.  The  six-line  stave,  triple  measure,  is  only  used,  so  far 
as  I  know,  in  amphiambic  endecasyllabics.  Scott's  "Loch- 
invar  "  is  an  instance. 

28* 


534  APPENDIX. 

3.  The  eight-line  stave  in  the  amphiambic  tetrameter,  or 
tetrameter  catalectic,1  is  a  noble  measure.  Examples  :  — 

"  Then  blame  not  |  the  bard  if  |  in  pleasure's  |  soft  dream,  |  "  &c. 

MOOKE. 

"  I  climbed  the  |  dark  brow  of  |  the  mighty  |  Helvellyn.  |  "  —  SCOTT. 

There  are  also  eight-line  staves  in  fives,  and  in  fives  and 
sixes.  These  are  dactylic.  Examples  :  — 

"  Over  the  |  mountains,  | 
And  j  over  the  |  waves,  | 
Under  the  |  fountaTns, 
And  |  under  the  |  graves,  J  "  &c. 

"  Where  shall  the  |  traitor  rest,  | 

He  the  de-|ceiver,  |  "  &c.  — SCOTT. 

A  dactylic  stave  in  sixes,  fives,  and  fours,  varying  in  the 
number  of  lines,  was  used  by  Hood  with  great  effect  in  his 
4 'Bridge  of  Sighs:  "  — 

"  One  more  unfortunate,  | 

Weary  o"f  |  breath,  | 
Rashly  ini-|portunate,  | 
Gone  to  her  |  death.  |  " 

There  are  many  other  varieties,  but  the  rules  already  given 
will  probably  enable  the  student  to  name  and  classify  them 
as  he  falls  in  with  them. 

PINDARIC    MEASURES. 

These  hold  an  intermediate  position  between  stanzas  and 
continuous  verse.  They  are  divided  into  strophes,  which 
seldom  contain  more  than  twent}*-oight  or  fewer  than  four- 

1  A  line  which  falls  short  by  one  syllable  of  the  full  measure  of 
four  amphiambuses,  is  so  designated. 


ENGLISH   METEES.  535 

teen  lines.  Irregularity  may  be  said  to  be  their  law :  the 
lines,  as  well  as  the  strophes,  are  of  different  lengths,  and 
the  rli3Tmes  are  arranged  in  half  a  dozen  ways.  For  an  ex- 
ample, see  p.  445.  As  a  general  rule,  they  are  in  iambic 
measure ;  but  trochaic  lines  are  sometimes  introduced  with 
striking  effect.  Thus  in  Gray's  u  Bard,"  which  consists  of 
nine  strophes,  six  containing  fourteen,  and  three,  twenty 
lines,  ea^h  shorter  strophe  opens  with  a  trochaic  line,  so  as 
to  produce  the  sense  of  abruptness  which  the  poet  was  aim- 
ing at :  — 

"  Ruin  |  seize  thee,  |  ruthless  |  king !  | 
CoAfu-|sion  on  J  thy  ban-|ners  wait!  |  " 


INDEX. 


INDEX. 


Abbreviations :  Bp.  for  Bishop ;  Abp.  for  Archbiship ;  flor.  for  floruit 
(flourished) ;  n.  for  note.  When  only  one  date  is  given,  it  is  that 
of  death. 


ABELARD 15 

Addison,    Jos.    (1672-1719) 

228,  235 

His  Cato,  244,  366;  Free- 
holder, 256 ;  Heroic  Poetns, 
368;  Contributions  to  Spec- 
tator, Tatler,  &c.,  254; 
Pamphlets,  254. 

Adolplms,  John  (1770-1845)  488 
Akeuside,  Mark  (1721-1770)  262 
Aldrich,  Dr.  H.  (1647-1710)  247 
Alford,  Mich.  (1587-1652)  502 
Alfred,  King  (849-901)  .  13 
Allegorical  Poetry  .  .  384-392 
Allen,  Cardinal  (1532-1594) 

75,  133 
Andrewes,    L.    (Bp.)    (1555- 

1626) 136 

Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  The  13 
Anselm,  St.  (1033-1109)  .  .  14 
Anti-Jacobin,  The  ....  466 
Aquinas,  St.  Thomas  .  .  .  149 
Arbuthnot,  Dr.  John  (1675- 

1735) 253 

Ariosto 76 

Arnold,  Dr.  (1795-1842)  .  369,487 
Ascham,    Roger   (1515-1568) 
His    Toxophilus  and  other 

works 71 

Atterbury,    F.    (Bp.)    (1662- 
1731)     ......    233,  294 

Austen,    Miss    Jane    (1775- 

1817) 338 

Her  Novels,  463. 

Autobiographies 491 

Avesbury,  Robert  de    .    .    .    22 


PAGE. 
BACON,  Francis,  Lord 

(1561-1626) 122 

His  Essays,  122 ;  History  of 
Henry  VIL,  127,  487;  Phi- 
losophical Works,  139-148, 
515. 

Bacon,  Roger  (1214-1292)  .  15 
Baillie,  Joanna  (1762-1851)  .  338 
Baldwin,  Wm.  (circa  1570)  .  53 
Bale,  John  (Bp.)  1495-1563) .  71 

His  Kynye  Johan,  101. 
Barbour,    John    (1316-1396) 

40,  367 
Barclay,    Alex.    (flor.    circa 

1500) 50 

Barrow,  Isaac  (1630-1677)  .  210 
Baxter,  Rich.  (1615-1691)  212, 500 

His  Autobiography,  206. 
Beattie,  Jas.  (1735-1802)  .     .  266 
Beaumont,  F.  (1586-1615)     .  114 
Becon,  Thos.  (1512P-1570?)  .     71 

Beda  (673-735) 16 

Belm,  Mrs.  (1689)  ....  199 
Belsham,  Wm.  (1753-1828)  .  488 
Bentham,  Jeremy  (1748-1832)  340 
Bentley,  Dr.  Rich.  (1662-1742) 

246,  288 
His  Dissertation   on  Pha- 

laris 246 

Berkeley,   Geo.  (Bp.)  (1684- 

1753) 293 

His  Alciphron,  288;  Philo- 
sophical Works,  507. 
Beveridge,  Wm.  (Bp.)  (1637- 

1708) 499 

Bible,  English  Versions  of    .  137 


540 


INDEX. 


Bingham,  Jos.  (1668-1723)    .  499 
Biofjraphia  Britannica     .    .  492 
Biography  .......  491 

Blackmore,  Sir  Rich,    (died 

1729)    ........  240 

His  Epic  Poems,  ib. 
Blind  Harry    ......     58 

Blooinfield,    Robert     (1766- 

1823)    ........  274 

Bolinghroke,  Lord  (1678-1751) 

231,  287 

Boswell,  Jas.  (1740-1795)  .    .  286 
Bower,  Abhot     .....     23 

Boyle,  Charles  (1676-1731)    .  247 
Brenton,  ('apt  ......  490 

Broome.  Win.  (174:>)     .     .     .  i':;i> 
Brown.    Dr.    Tii..m;i3    (1778- 

1820)    ........  505 

Browne.  Sir  Thus.  (1605-1682)  21s 

UN     /;<  'iaio     Medici    and 

otlier  works,  218-22'  i. 
Browne.  Win.  (  1  .->'.•'  M»J45)     .  422 


BuHianan,  Geo.  (1506-1581)  .  141) 
Burkiiigliam,  Duk«-  of  (1027- 

1688)   ........  197 

Bull,  Geo.   (Bp.)  (1634-1710) 

210,  247 

His  Defensio  Fidei  Nicence, 

400, 
Uiuivan,  .John  (1628-1088) 

II  h  Pflflrim'i  ProgreM,  ;>>. 
Burke,     Edm.     (1780-1797). 

280,  297,  510 

His  political   Tracts,   283; 

Speech--.,   47:1:    A'.s.xa//    on 

the  Sublime  and  Jieautii'iil. 

299. 
Burnet,   Gilb.    (Bp.)    (1643- 

17i:>)   ......    400,  498 

\l\^    ///N/O/-//     i  tf   fiix    own 

Time*,  258,  483  ;  History  of 

the  Reformation,  21  o. 
Bumey,  Frances  (1752-1840).  218 

Her  Novels,  ib.  ;  Diary  and 

Letters,  494. 
Burns,  Robert  (1759-1796)  271,422 

II  i.  Poems,  271,  433,  443. 
Burton,  Robert  (1576-1640)   .  122 

His    Anatomy    of    Melan- 

choly, ib. 

Butler,  Alban  (1710-1773)     .  502 
Butler,  Jos.  (Bp.)  (1692-1752)  289 

His  Sermons,  296,  505  ;  An- 

alogy, 289. 


PAGE. 

Butler,  Sam.  (1612-1680)  .    .  192 
His  lludihras,  192,  414. 

Byron,    Geo.,     Lord    (1788- 

1824) 311 

His  Oriental  Tales,  ib.  ; 
other  Poems,  318-320 ; 
Childe  Harold,  453;  Eng- 
lish Bards  and  Scotch  Re- 
viewers, 313,  413;  Plays, 
338. 


CAMDEN,  Wm.  (1557-1623)  126 
His     Hritiinnin.    120;    An- 
nals. 1-J7. 
Campbell,  Thos.  (1777-1844)  326 

II is  Poems,  320. 
Canning,  Geo.  (1770-1827)     .  466 

H H  Speed**,  :;:)(.». 
rapuruvf,  John  (,-i,-r<t.  1470)  09 
Carew,  Thomas  (1689) .  .  174 
Carte,  Thomas  (Kiso-1754)  284 
Cartwriiiht,  Tims.  (100:!)  .  135 
Cave,  Win.  (Hi:J7-17l:J) 
Cavemli<li,  (ii-<n-i,ri-  .  . 
Caxtnn.  Wm.  (Ifi2-1492) 
Centlivn-.  Mrs.  (10SO-1723) 


Challoncr  (Up.)  (lO'.M-IT^l) 
ChalnxT-,    Al«'\.   (1T.")9-1834) 


132 
47,  08 
946 

2U2 


Hi> 

ary  .........  492 

Chalmers,  Thos.  (1780-1847)  500 
Ohalon.T,  Sir  T.  (cimi.  15SO)  5:J 
Chapman,  (ii-o.  (  I.V)7-1»;:U)  .  93 

Hi-  Il'iairr,  H>.  :    IMay^. 
Chatham,  Lord  (1706-17781  .  117 
chatt.Tton.  Thos.(1782-lT70)  266 
Chaucer,     Geoffrey     (1328- 

1400)'  .......    25-34 

Ili-i  Court  of  Love,  22;  Can- 

terbury Tales,  :54.  379,  383; 

Flower     and     Leaf,    385; 

Prose  Works,  42. 
Clu-k.i,  Sir  John  .....     64 
(  •hr.t.-rfirl,!,  Lord  (1694-1773)  494 
Chillingworth,    Win.    (1602- 

1644)    ........  209 

Chubb,  Thos.  (1079-1747)  .  287 
Churchill,  Clias.  (1731-1764)  264 

His  Prophecy  of  Famine, 

417. 

Gibber,  Colley  (1671-1757)  .  245 
Clarendon,  Edward  Hyde, 

Lord  (1609-1674)  ....  204 

His  History  of  the  Rebel- 

lion, 480. 


INDEX. 


541 


PAGE. 

Cleveland,  John  (1613-1659) 

169,  174 

Cobbett,  Wm.  (1762-1835)     .  339 
Coleridge,     Hartley      (1796- 

1849) 492 

Coleridge,  S.   T.  (1772-1834) 

309,  508 

His  Poems  and  Plays,  323,  337 
Colet,  Dean  (1466-1519)  .  .  62 
Collier,  Jeremy  (1650-1726)  .  200 
Collins,  Anthony  (1676-1729)  287 
Collins,  William  (1720-1756)  264 
Cohnan,  Geo.  (1733-1794)  .  274 
Comedies,  Early  English  .  .  99 
Congreve,  Win.  (1669-1728)  .  199 
Cook,  Capt.  (1728-1779)  .  .  287 
Corbet,  Rich.  (Bp.)  (1582- 

1635) 173 

Rowley,  Abr.  (1618-1667)  161-167 

His  Davidcis,  163 ;  Poem  O/ 

Plants,     165;    Plays,     ib.; 

Mistres*,  ib.,  441;  Pindar- 

iques,  166. 
Cowper,  Wm.  (1731-1800)     .  267 

His  Castaway,  447;   Lines 

on  his  Mother's  Picture,  452 ; 

The  Task,  268. 

Coxe,  William  (1747-1829)     .  488 
Crabbe,  Geo.  (1754-1832) .     .  320 

His  Tales,  384. 
Cranmer.  Thos.  (Abp.)  (1489- 

1556) 70 

Crashaw,  Rich,  (circa  1650)     171 
Cromwell,  Oliver  (1658)    156,  157 

His  speeches,  204,  494. 
Crowne,  John  (circa  1700)    .  199 
Cudworth,  Ralph  (1617-1688) 

211,  506 


DANIEL,  Sam.  (1562-1619) .  87 
Darwin,  Dr.  E.  (1731-1802)  .  273 
Davenant,  Sir  Wm.  (1605- 

1668) 194 

His  Gondibert,  ib. 
Davies,  Sir  J.  (1570-1626)      .     92 
Davy,  Sir  Humphrey  (1778- 

1829) 314 

Defoe,  Daniel  (1661-1731)  240,  250 
Deists,  the  English  ....  287 
Dekker,  Thomas  (circa  1638) 

113,  117 

His  Plays 118 

Denham,    Sir    John     (1615- 

1668) 176 

His  Cooper's  Hill,  424. 
46 


Descriptive  Poetry  ....  423 

Dialect,  Scottish 59 

Didactic  Poetry  .  .  .  397-406 
Dodwell,  H.  (1641-1711)  .  .  499 
Donne,  John  (1573-1631).  .  89 

His   Satires,   408;    Poems, 

90;  Sermons,  136. 
Douglas,  Gawain  (1474-1522)    56 
Doyle,  Dr.  James  (Bp.  )(1787- 

1834) ^.     .  340 

Drama,  English,  History  of, 

95,  195,  243,  274,  337 

Dramatic  poetry 362 

Dramatic  unities 102 

Drayton,  Mich.  (1563-1631)53,89 

His    Nymphidia,  90,  454; 

Polyolbion,  90. 
Drummond,  William   (1585- 

1640) 174 

Dryden,  John  (1631-1700)  184-191 

His    Plays,    186,    195-197; 

Essay  of  Dramatic  Poesy, 

196;    Fables,    383;   Annus 

Mirabilis,  397 ;    Hind  and 

Panther,  189,  398;  Absalom 

and  Acfdtophel,  187,  415; 

Eelicjio  Laid,  188. 
Dunbar,  Wm.  (1521?)  .    .    .     54 

His  Thixtle  and  Eose,  ib.     .  386 
Dyer,  John  (1700-1758)     .     .  242 


EDGE  WORTH,  Miss  (1767- 

1849) 339 

Edwards,  Bryan  (1743-1800)    490 

Elegiac  Poetry 445 

Ellis,  Geo.  (1753-1815)  .  273,  464 
Elmham,  Thomas  (flor.  1440)  22 
Elphinstone,  Hon.  M.  (1779- 

1859) 489 

Elyot,  Sir  Thomas  ....  152 

His  Governour,  ib. 
England's  Helicon    ....     73 
English  language,  prevalence 

of 25 

Epic  Poetry  ....  343-362 
Erasmus  (1467-1536)  ...  68 
Erskine,  Thos.,  Lord  (1750- 

1823) 281 

Etherege,  Sir  G.  (flor.  1670)  .  99 
Evelyn,  John  (1620-1706)  206, 494 


FABLES 391 

Fabyan,  Rob.  (1512)     ...     69 
Fairfax,  Edw.  (1632)    ...    76 


542 


INDEX. 


PAGE. 

Falconer,  Wm.  (1730-1769) 

265,384 

Farquhar,  Geo.  (1678-1707)  .  245 
Fell,  Ur.  John  (Bp.)  (10:T>- 

1085) 499 

Feltham,       Owen      (1608?- 

1600?) 218 

Fenton,  Elijah  (168&-1730)  .  236 
Ferguson,  Adam  (1724-1816)  486 
F.MT.T-,  (i.-orge  (ir>70)  .  .  53 
Fiction,  work-  of  ....  451 
Fit-Id,  Dr.  Kiel..  (1 5(51-1616) 

Hi-  Hunk  <>f  I  In-  Cfnirch      .  496 
FiHdii.  J77,  517 

Filin.-r,  Sir  Kolx-rt  (1688)       .  217 

Hi-  r>if,-;<n-i'lni,  508. 
Fletcher,  John  ( i:,T«;- Hi-:,)  .  114 

Hi-  ! 

Poote,  SUM,.  (17-J1-1777)  .  .  275 
Korlx-s,  \Vm.  (Bp.)  (1585- 

.....  498 
For. I.  John  (1586-1639?)  .     .  116 

Hi-  i 

Fonl.m.  .loin.  (1:577)     ...     22 

Fortescue,  Sir  J.  (<•;,•<•«  n*5)     07 

Foster,  John  (1770-1848)  .     .  :.l  I 

.lohn  (1:.17-15S7)     .    .  132 

His  Acts  and  Monuments, 

Francis    Sir    Philip     (1740- 

1818) 282 

Ot.  .John  (l:;:;:;-l  lnl)  .     21 

Full.T,  Tli.-.  (160&-1661)   87,204 
Hi-  FPoriftta  <•''  J-:>i'jland,  204. 


GALE,  Tl.os  (io:iO-1702)      .  202 
(iarth.  Dr.  Sam.  (  H1H.V171 - 

Hi-    />/>•/"  ,/.s, /;•;/,    lh. 

yne,  Geo.  (1540-1677J .  106 

Hi-  Not es  on  perse,  1  •_':  J. 

.4)    .     .  202 
(, ..v.  John  il'-.»-I7:i-J)      .     .  235 

Hi-  /!< ••/'////•' .s  Opera,  246. 
(i.-.tYivy  of  Monmouth  (1154)     16 
GHbbon,  Edw.  (1737-1794)     .  280 

Hi<  I)i-ri;,,r  <ind  Fall  of  the 

Roman    Eni]>ire,   486;  Me- 

'/•N.     191. 

GilTord,  Wm.  (1757-1826)  .  274 

His  Baviad  and  Mveviad, 

412, 
Gloucester,  Humphrey,  Duke 

of 63 

Glover,  Rich.  (1712-1785)      .  262 

His  Leonidax,  ib. 


PAGE. 
Godwin,  Wm.  (1750-1836) 

278,  298 

His  Political  Justice,  298. 
Goldsmith,      Oliver     (1728- 

1774)    

His    Poems,     200;    Plays, 

275;    Vicar  of   FFofcdlefcZ, 

278;  his  Sfctorie*,  -Jso. 
Gorbodnr.  trap-dy  of     .     .     .100 

Gore,  Mrs.  . 463 

Gosson,  St.'.  (l.V> I- ir,i':j)  .    .  124 
(;..\V.T,  .John  il:j^)-l-H)i'?) 

His  Confcxain  Ani'iiiti*,  35,  ' 

383;  other  Poem-.  :;:>.  :;o. 
(Irafloii,  Rich.  (drCQ  \'n-2)    .     70 
(Jrattrui,  H.-nry  ( 17-JO-1820)  .  281 
(;rav.  Th..<.  (I71'J-1771)    .     .  262 

Hi^  I-:/*,,,,,  if,.,  449;  Bard, 

492. 
Greene,  Rob.  (1593)      .    .    .103 

His  Play-.  l.M. 

(iroryn.  Win.    (i:.l!»)      ...     60 

Crote,  George 339 

,  lingo 31 


HAILKS,  Lord  (17-Ji;-179-J)  .  480 
Hsikluyt,  Ilirh.  (l.V,:;-HJ10)  .  104 
Bales,  Alex,  (i-j-i:,)  ....  15 

Halifax,    Charlc'-    Montague, 

Karl  of  (Hii;i-171.-|)    .     .     .190 
Hall,  Edwar.1  (i:>17)      ...     70 

Hail,  Jot.  (Up.)  (i.vn-HJriO).  207 
Hi-  Meditations,  218;   his 
Satire*, 

Hall.  Kohrrt  ( 17f,l-ls:n  )  .     .  340 
llallani,  Henry  (1777-1850)  .  339 
Hi-   UMory  nf  European 

> fnr< .  .")!". 
Hamilton,  Sir  W.  (1788-1856) 

:>(>:],  504 

Hammond,  H.  (1605-1660)  .  498 
Hardiim,  Thorn aa(  151 2-1572)  1:34 
Hardynir,  John  (rircu  1402)  .  49 

His  Chronicle.  i'>. 
Hare,  Julius  (1795-1855)  .    .  500 
Harrington,     James     (1611- 

1677) 218 

Harrington,  Sir  John  (1561- 

1612 76 

Harrison,  William  ....  124 
Hartley,  David  (1705-1757)  .  506 

His  work  On  Man,  296. 
Ilau.-s  Ste.  (1509)     ....  49 
Hawkes worth,  Dr.  J.  (1715- 

1773) 284 


INDEX. 


543 


Hazlitt,  Wm.  (1778-1830)  .  340 
Heber,  Reginald  (Bp.)  (1783- 

1826) 337 

Hemans,  Felicia  (1794-1835)  337 
Henry  son,  Rob.  (circa  1500)  .  54 
Herbert,  Geo.  (1593-1032)  .  172 

His  Sacred  Poems,  ib. 

Heroic  Poetry 367 

Herrick,  Robert  (1591-1661)  .  175 

His  Hesperides,  ib. 
Herschel,  Sir  John  ....  504 
Hey  wood,  John  (1565)  .  .  100 
Heywood,  Thos.  (circa  1640)  118 
Hiatgins,  John  (circa  1590)  .  53 
Hih,  Rowland  (1745-1833)  .  340 

History 419-490 

Hobbes,  Thos.  (1588^679)    .  213 

His  political  theories,  509. 
Hogg,  Jas.  (1772-1835)  .  313,  337 
Holinshed,  Raph.  (circa  1580)  124 
Home,  John  (1722-1808)  .  .  274 
Hood,  Thomas  (1798-1845)  .  336 
Hooke,  Nath.  (1763)  ...  486 
Hooker,  Rich.  (1553-1600)  .  135 

His  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  ib. 

Hooper  (Bp.) 71 

Hope,  Thos.  (1767-1831)  .  .  46 
Hume,  David  (1711-1776)  284,  507 

His   History    of  Enr/land, 

284;  Philosophical   Works, 

294. 

Humor,  Works  of  ....  467 
Hutcheson,  Francis  (1694- 

1746) 296 

INTERLUDES 100 

Ifiiimbras,  Sir,  Romance  of    .  373 

JACOBITE  Songs  ....  431 

James  I.  (1566-1625) 
His  Basilicon  Doron      .    .  137 

James,  Wm.  (1827)  ....  490 

Jeffrey,  Francis,  Lord  (1773- 
1850) 514 

Jewel  (Bp.)  (1522-1571)    .    .  134 
His  Apology  and  Defence, 
ib. 

Johnson,    Sam.    (1709-1784) 

258-261,  405 

His  Irene,  274;  Easselas, 
278 ;  Pamphlets,  282 :  Ram- 
bler   '.  260,  284 

Jonson,  Ben.  (1574-1637)  112-114 
His    Sad    Shepherd,    160; 
Poems,  ib. 


Journalism      .    . 
Junius,  Letters  of 


PAGE. 

.  474 

.  281 


KAYE,  John  (circa  1470)  53 
Keats,  John  (1795-1821)  .  315 
Keble,  John  (1866)  ...  340 
Kippis,  Andrew  (1725-1795)  492 
Knolles,  Rich.  (1545P-1610)  130 
Knowles,  Sheridan  (born  in 
1784) .  338 


LAMB,  Charles  (1775-1835)  .  340 
Landon,  Letitia  E.  (1802- 

1838) 337 

Lanigan,  Dr.  (1758-1828)  .  .  488 
Lardner,  Dr.  Nath.  (1684- 

1768) 248 

Latimer  (Bp.)  (1490-1555)  .  70 
Latitudinarian  Divines  .  .  211 
Laud,  Wm.  (Abp.)  (1573- 

1645) 154 

Laureated  Poets 55 

Law,  Win.  (1686-1761)  .  260,  500 
Layamon,  (flor.  1200)  ...  17 

Lee,  Nat.  (1692) 198 

Leighton  (Abp.)  (1611-1684) 

211,  498 

Leland,  John  (1552)  ...  68 
Leslie,  Charles  (1650-1722)  .499 
Lightfoot,  John  (1602-1675) .  212 

Lilliburlero 420 

Linacre,     Thomas      (1464?- 

1524) 61 

Locke,  John  (163P%04)  215,  216 

His  Essay,  ib.   Wjljg&ea- 

tixes  on  GovernmeirfiT^fr  .  £10 
Lockhart,  J.  G.  (1794-1854).  340 

His  Life  of  Scott,  493. 
Lodge,  T.  (i563?-1625)     .     .  12» 
Lombard,  Peter  (Abp.)     .     .     15v 
Lovelace,  Col.   Rich.    (1618- 

1658) 176 

His  Songs,  431. 
Lowth,    Rob.    (Bp.)     (1710- 

1787) 276 

Ludlow,  Edm.  (1620-1693)    .  204 

His  Memoirs,  480. 
Lydgate,  John  (1375-1430?)  38,  52 
Lyly,  John  (1554-1603)     .     .  121 
Lyndsay,    Sir   David    (1490- 

1555)    .     . 57 

Lyrical  Poetry  .  .  .  427-4*5 
Lytton,  Sir  E.  Bulwer  .  .  .460 


544 


INDEX. 


PAOE. 

MACAULAY,  Lord  (1800- 
1859) 444 

Mackenzie,  Henry  (1745-1831) 
Hi-  Ni.\«-K  L'78. 

Mallet,  David  (17<>:M7»;5)      .  290 

Malmesbury,  William  of  (flor. 
1140) 16 

Malory,    Sir    Thomas    (flor. 


II       //-/one  of  King  Ar- 

........  375 

Manning,  Robert  (flor.  1310)  17 

Mariana  ........  150 

Marini     ........  161 

Mailow,  Chr.  (1504-1593)    .  101 

II:      , 

Marston.  .J..l.n  (flor.  1604)  85,93 

II  iy*,  117. 

Martin-Mii.  Il.irrirt   ....  840 
Marvell,  Andn-w  (1020-1678) 

183,  206 
Mason.  w. 

Massliwr.  Philii  10)  ll<; 

.95-1050)     .  205 

.....     v; 

.  .lames  (1720-1769)  .  892 

Mi.  1.  11.  -i.  ,n,    Couyera     (1683- 

....-<_• 
Middl-t-.n,   Thomas    (1570?- 


l.  .Ja 


Mill.  .Jan.-  (177:J-ls:j.j)    .     .  480 
.  504 
Milii.-r.    .Inhn     (Up.)    (1762- 

.     .     .  840 

Milton,  .I,,],,,  (  u;os-ir,74i  176-184 
II 

17- 

on  IHxli  •>{»   Andrewes,   1 
Paradise  L<»  -45- 

862  ;     Saimon    Agonistes, 
866;    prose-writings,     179, 

m, 

Mir.i.-le  Plays  ......    96 

Minrour  t'nr  Mn'iixtnite*,  The     53 
Mnt..nl,\Vm.(174:M827)286,  339 
M'»nti:«»m'-rv.    .lann.-s    (1771- 
1864)   .    '  .......  337 

Moore,  Edward  (1712-1757)  .  274 
Moore,  Thomas   (1780-1> 

;<},  435 

His    Satires,  420;   Sacred 
Songs,  430;  Lalla  Rookh, 

Moral  Plays     ......     98 

More,  Henry  (1614-1687)  211,500 


PAGE. 

More,  Sir  T.  (  1480-1  5&5)   .  68,  71 

IIi>   I'tnf.hi.  I','.);   History  Of 

K'lward  V.,  487. 
Murphy,  Arthur  (1727-1805)   274 


NAPIER,  Sir  W  .....  490 

Narrative  Poetry     ....  372 

Neal,  Daniel  (W7&-1743)  .    .  i^ 

N.-wmaii.  Dr.  J.  II.       ...  :\\n 

\fwsp:ipors.  Origin  of.     .     .  124 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac  (  1642-1727)  221 

Niccols.  Kit-hard  .....  :,:; 

N..I.N-,  Mark  (  ls-j7)  ....  .|:..; 

Norton,  Tlminas  (1584)     .     .  1«H) 
Novel,  Rise  of  the   .     .    . 


OCCAM,  Wm.  of  (  1300-1347)    15 


,  K..l.,Tf  (172<-1SM1) 


,  Thoma-  (l»!51-l»iS-,)  .    UK 


I'AIXK.  ThOi,     !T:;7-1809) 

William  (174:5  1S05) 
ii  -    Mi.i-Hi  and    1'niiHrni 

/V///M.N,,y  ,/,//,    21 

'   I'J.V.I)  . 

1718)    . 

His  Hrrn.it,  884, 
Parsons,  Bol..-rt  i  i:.n;-l»;in) 
Pastoral  PoetTJ  ...... 

Pearson,  John   (Hp.)    (1(512- 
.  212, 

I'.T..,-k.  Kfirinald  (Bp.)  (circa 
.     .     .     . 

,  Samuel  (1682-1708)    . 
...... 

P.-rkins  Win.  (1558-1608)     . 
I'.-ti-an-h       ....... 


Philips,  Anr  :i-174'.») 

I'hilip-.  K.lwM  .  1 
Philips.  .],,!,  M  (I«i7«^1708)      . 
PhiloN.ijiliy    .... 

!ui  nr.co-icn;) 
Pitt.  William  I17.V.I-! 

lu-'d  (li;ot-ir,'.il) 
Pole,  Cardinal  (15inM55s) 
P.»llok,  KolM-rt  (1798-18271 
Pool,  Matth.-w  (H;i>4-l«;7'.'j 
Pope,  A.  (1688-1744) 

L'2«>-2:i4,  242,  302 


2J>7 


16 
236 

188 


496 


206 
266 

41>8 
M 

242 

248 
511 
492 

276 
06 

337 

498 


Satires,  411,  412;  Essay  on 


INDEX. 


545 


Man,  244,  400;  Eloisa  to 
Abelard,  451;  Essay  on 
Criticism,  257,  404j  Moral 
Essays,  40DT~^7«pe  of  the 
Lock,  369;  Iliad,  344;  Dun- 
dad,  231. 

Pope,  Sir  Thomas  ....  65 
Porson,  Richard  (1752-1808)  276 
Potter,  J.  (Abp.  )  (1674-1747) 

202,  499 
Priestley,  Dr.  Joseph  (1733- 

1804) 297 

Prior,  Matthew  (1066-1721)  .  238 
Furchas,  Sam  (1577-1628)     .121 
His  Pilyrimarie,  ib. 

Pusey,  Dr.  E.  B 340 

Puttenham,  Geo.  (circa  1585)     51 
His  Art  of  English  Poesy  .  123 


QUARLES,   Francis    (1592- 
1044) 163,452 


JADCLIFFE,    Mrs.    (1764- 

'   1823) 279 

Paleigh,  Sir  W.  (1552-1618)  .     95 
His   Ilixtnrt/  <>f  I h<'    World) 
130;  Observations  on  Trade 
and  Commerce,   102;  Pre- 
rogative of  J'nrlianient,  ib.; 

Purnix,  '.)."). 

Ramsay,  Allan  (1686-1757)    .  243 
fcapin,  Paul  (10(11-172."))    .     .  488 
Reid,  Dr.  Thos.  (1710-1796)  .  293 
His  Philosophical    Works, 
ib.  505. 

ftenard,  The  Fox .    .    .    .68,385 
Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua  (1723- 

1702) 301 

Ricardo,  David  (1772-1823)  .  340 
Richardson,  Sam.  (1689-1761)  276 

His  Novel*,  4:32. 
Robertson,  Win.  (1721-1793)    285 

Rolliad,  The 273 

Romances,  Metrical      .     .     .  373 
Romantic  Poems,  by  Scott    .  392 
by  Byron  .  394 
by  Moore  .  385 
Roscommon,  Wentworth  Dil- 
lon, Earl  of  (1633-1684)      .  101 
Rowe,  Nich.  (1673-1718)   .     .  244 
Rowley,  Win.  (™-cal620)      .  110 
Royal  Society,  foundation  of   221 
Ruffhead,  Owen  (1723P-1769)  493 
His  Life  of  Pope,  286, 
46* 


PAGE. 

Rush  worth,  John  (1606-1690)  204 

Ruskin,  John 340 

Russell,  Dr.  W.  (1746-1794)  .  286 
Rymer,  Thomas  (1038-1714).     21 


SACKVILLE,  Thos.   (1536- 

1600) 48, 53, 100 

His  Gorboduc 100 

Sanderson,  Rob.  (Bp.)  (1587- 

1663) 498 

Satirical  Poetry  .  .  .  400-421 
Savage,  Richard  (1698-174:3)  241 

Scotus,  Duns 15 

Scott,  Sir  Walter  (1771-1832) 

307-315,  337,  338 
His  Poetry,  307-311,  434, 444; 
Novels,  310-314,  400. 
Selden,  John  (1584-1654) .     .  198 
Settle,   Elkanah    (1648-1724)  109 

Sewell,  Win 340 

Shad  well,  Thos.  (1640-1602) 

190,  199 
Shakspeare,  Wm.  (1564-1610) 

87,  102-110,  363 
His  Life.  104;   Comedies, 
106;   Tragedies,  108;  His- 
torical Plays,  110;  Poems, 
83, 

Sheffield,  Lord  (1649-1721)  .  187 
Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe  (1792- 

1822) 316,  317 

His  Hellas,  436;   Skylark, 
455;  Cloud,  455. 
Shenstone,  Wm.  (1714-1763)    264 

His  Pastoral  Ballad,  423. 
Sheridan,  R.  B.  (1751-1817) 

275,  280 
Sherlock,    Dr.    Wm.    (1641- 

1707) 496 

Shirley,  James  (1596-1666)    .  119 
Sidney,  Sir  Philip  (1554-1586)  123 
His  Arcadia,  121 ;  Defence 
of  Poesie,  123,  510. 
Skelton,  John  (1529)     .     .     .    49 
Smith,  Adam  (1723-1790)      .  293 
His  Theory  of  Moral  Senti- 
ments, 290 ;  Wealth  of  Na- 
tions, 298. 

Smith,  Sydney  (1777-1845)    .  33? 
His  Peter  Plymley' s  Letters, 
409. 

Smith,  James  and  Horace  .  337 
Smith,  Sir  Thomas  ....  34 
Smollett,  Tobias  (1721-1771) 

277,463 


546 


INDEX. 


Southern,  Thos.  (1659-1746)  245 
Southey,  Robert  (1774-1843) .  309 

His  Thalaba,  &c.,  325. 
Southwell,  Robt.  (1560-1596)     84 
Speed,  John  (1552-1629)   .     .  128 
Spenser,  Edmund  (1553-1599) 

76-83 

His  Faerie  Queen,  80,  387 ; 
Shepherd's  Calendar,  76 ; 
State  of  Ireland,  80,  150; 
Euines  of  Time,  81 ;  Teares 
of  the  Muses,  ib.  ;  minor 
poems,  79. 

Stanley,  T.  (1625-1678)  .  .  202 
Stanley,  Dr.  Arthur  ...  340 
Steele,  Richard  (1671-1729)  . 

245,  254-256 

Sterne,  Laurence  (171:3-1768)  277 
His  Trixtriim   Skemdg,  468; 
Sentimental  Journey,  4(58. 
Stewart,  Dunald  (1758-1828)    293 
Stillingfleet,  Edward   (1635- 

1»H»«.») 499 

Suckling,    Sir    John    (1609- 

1641) 175 

Surrey,  Earl  of  (1516-1547)   .    61 
His  Songes  and  Sonnettes, 
52. 

Swift,  Jonathan  (1667-1745)  229 
His  Cadenus  and  Vanessa 
and  other  poems,  236 ;  Gul- 
liver's Travels,  249;  Pam- 
phlets, 251;  Drapier"1  &  Let- 
ters, 251;  Battle  of  the 
.Boofcs,  257,  469;  Tale  of  a 
Tub,  251,  464;  Conduct  of 
the  Allies,  477. 


TASSO  (1544-1595)      ...  346 
Taylor,  Jeremy  (1613-1667) 

207-209 

His  Holy  Living  and  Holy 

Dying,  500. 
Temple,  Sir  W.  (1628-1698)  .  247 

Thackeray 340 

Theolo£?y 495-502 

Thirl  wail,  C.  (Bp.)  ....  339 

Thrale,  Mrs 392 

Thomson,  James  (1700-1748)  237 

His  Seasons,  425 ;  Castle  of 

Indolence,  390 ;  Sophonisba, 

244. 

Tickell,  Thomas  (1686-1740)  241 
Tindall,  Dr.  Matthew  (1657- 

1733)    .  ,    .    .  287 


PAGE. 

Tiptoft,  Earl  of  Worcester  .  47 
Toland,  John  (1669-1722)  287,  493 
Tourneur,  Cyril  (flor.  1612)  .  118 
Travers,  Walter  (circa  1600)  135 
Tucker,  Abr.  (1705-1774)  .  .  297 
UDALL,  Nicholas  (1506- 

1564) 99 

Usher,  James  (Abp.)  (1581- 

1656) 198,  499 


VANBRUGH,      Sir     John 

(1672-1726) 245 

Vancouver,  Capt.  (1750-1798)  287 
Vicar  of  Bray,  The  .  .  .  .421 
Vives,  Ludovicus  ....  125 
Voltaire  (1094-1778)  131,278,  285 


WAGE,  Richard  (flor.  1170)  17 
Wall,  William  (1646-1728)  .  496 
Waller,  Edmund  (1605-1687)  170 

His  Poems,  ib. 

Walpole,  Horace  (1717-1797)  279 
1 1  is  Memoirs  of  George  II., 
483;  Letters,  ib.,  418;  Anec- 
dotes of  Painting,  301 ;  Cas- 
tle of  Otranto,  279. 
Walsh,  William  (1663-1709)  .  227 
Wiilsingham,  Thomas  (circa 

1440) 22 

Walton,  Bryan  (1600-1661)  .  498 
Walton,  Izaak  (159:3-1683) 

135,  205 
Warburton,  W.  (Bp.)  (1698- 

1779) 290 

Warner,  William  (born  about 

l.V>s) 86 

His  Albion's  England,  ib. 
Warton,  Thomas  (1729-1790)  264 
His     History     of    English 
Poetry,  286. 

Waterland,  Dan.  (1683-1740)  497 
Watts,  Isaac  (1674-1748)  .  .  246 
Webbe,  William  (flor.  1586)  .  123 
Webster,  John  (flor.  1620)  .  116 
Wesley,  John  (1703-1791)  .  292 
Whately,  Rich.  (Abp.)  1787- 

1863) 340,  504 

White,  H.  Kirke  (1785-1806)  337 
Whitlocke,  Bulstrode  (1605- 

1676) 204 

Whole  Duty  of  Man,  The  .  .  500 
Wilberforce,  William  (1759- 

1833) 340 

Wilkie,  William  (1721-1772)  .  344 


INDEX. 


547 


PAGE. 

Wilkins,  John   (Bp.)   (1614- 

1672) 211 

Wiseman,  Nich.  (Cardinal)  .  340 
Wither,  George  (1588-1667)  .  182 

His  Satires,  183. 
Wolcot,  Dr.  (1738-1819)    .     .  273 

His  Lousiad,  &c.,  418. 
Wolsey,  Cardinal  (1471-1530) 

64,  132 

Wood,  Anthony  (1632-1695)  205 
Wordsworth,  William  (1770- 

1850) 327-333 

His  Excursion,  331. 
Wotton,     Sir   Henry    (1568- 

1639) 173 

Wotton,  Dr.  (1666-1726)   .    .  247 


PAGE. 

Wyat,    Sir    Thomas    (1503- 
1541) 51 

Wycherley,  Wm.  (1640-1715) 

199,  228 

Wyclif,  John  (1324-1384) .     .    23 
His     Translation    of     the 
Bible,   43;    Sermons,    &c., 
44. 

Wynton,  Andrew  (died  1420)    40 

YOUNGr,      Edward     (1681- 

1765) 244 

His  Night  Thoughts,  263. 

ZINZENDORF,  Count    .     .  292 


LIST    OF    EXTRACTS. 


PAGE. 

ARNOLD'S  Lectures  on  Mod- 
ern History 487 


BACON'S 

Barbour,  The  Bruce     .     .     . 

Beatti<-'>  J////.x//v/     .     .     .     , 

Burked  Speech  at  Bristol      . 

Appeal  from  New  to   Old 

' 


"Burnt*  a  Scot*  wha  kae  . 

Mnr>/  J/"/-/NO,) 
Butler'  a  77/////v,/.x    .. 
Byron's 


513 
307 
266 
474 

511 
4:54 
442 
1113 
:5'.»5 

English  Mini*  .....  413 
Estimate  of  Pope  ....  478 


CAI:I-:\V'S  Songs 440 

Cham-.-r'<  Chris's  Tale.   .     .  382 

/       '••  /•  <i,d  LI-HI'  ....  380 

Nun's  Priest's  Tale  .    .    .  :^-2 

Chureliiirs  Mjht     ....  265 

Clarendon's  History     .     .     .  481 

Cleveland's  Hue  and  Cry  .     .  175 

Coventry  Mysteries  .    ...    97 

Cowley's  Songs   .     .     .    441,  444 

Lines  on  Oliver  Cromwell  .  16S 

CowpefsBoadicea  .     .     .     .  4:50 

His  Castaway 4:57 

Lines  on  a  Bull     ....  207 
Crabbe's  Borouyh    ....  321 


DAK  WIN'S  Loves  of  the  Plants  273 
Diivii-s'  A'asce  Teipsum  .  .  92 
Denham's  Cooper's  Hill  .  .  424 
Douglas,  Gawain  ....  57 
Dray  ton's  Polyolbion  .  .  .  424 
Dryden's  Absalom  and  Acliit- 

ophel 415 

Alexander's  Feast     .     .     .  444 
548 


PAGE. 

Dryden's  Hind  and  Panther  .  398 

Lines  to  Conyreve      .     .     .  199 

Prologue  to  Aurunyzebe     .  197 

Dunbar's  Tliistle  and  Row    .  386 

Dyer's  Gronyas  Hill      .     .     .  242 


GAY'S  Fables ......  891 

Gifford's  Baviad  .  .    .  413 


HALL'S  Satires 408 

llcrrick's  Songs 442 


JACOBITE  Song 432 

Johnson's  Vanity  of  Human 
Wlxhes 405 

Lives  of  the  Poets .    .    .     .492 
Jonson's  To  Celia    ....  439 

Epitaph 100 


LOVELACE'S  To  Althea    .    .  431 
Lydgate's  JJaunce   of  Mac- 
haibre  .  39 


MAKSTON'S  Satyres     .    .  85,  94 

Mar  veil's  Poems 183 

Milton's  Areopayiiica  .     .     .  510 
Apology  for  Smectyitmuus  .  476 

Christmas  Ode 428 

Lycidas 448 

Paradise  Lost  .    .    .    354-300 

Comus 178 

Moore's  Irixh  Melodies      435-443 

Lalla  Eookh 395 

Sound  the  loud  Timbrel      .  430 


NAPIER'S  Peninsular  War  .  490 


LIST   OF  EXTRACTS. 


549 


OCCLEVE'S  De  Eegimine 


PAGE. 

,     37 


PETER   PINDAR,    Epistle  to 
James  Boswell 420 

Pope's  Dyin'i  Christian     .     .  429 

Elegy 446 

Essay  on  Criticism     .    .     .  404 

Essay  on  Man 401 

Moral  Essays 409 

Satires 410,  411 

Rape  of  the  Lock.      .     .     .  3J9 
Dunciad  .     .    ,          .     .    .  234 


RALEIGH'S  Epitaph     .    .    .  448 

History 485 

Romance  of  Sir  Isumbras     .  373 


SCOTT,  Sir  Walter,  Lay  of  the 
Last  Minstrel    .    .     .    393,  434 
Marmion 310 

Shakspeare's  Cymbeline    .    .  446 

Henry  VIII 64 

King  John Ill 

Measure  for  Measure     .     .  439 

Shelley's  Adonais    ....  449 

Cloud 452 

Hellas.    .     .    .     ....  437 

Skylark  .......  455 


Shenstone's  Pastoral  Ballad   423 
Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  Defence  of 

Poesy 516 

Skel ton's  Phyllyp  Sparowe    .    50 
Spenser's  Faerie  Queen     .     .  388 

Ruines  of  Time 451 

Teares  of  the  Muses  ...    81 
Sterne's  Sentimental  Journey  468 

Surrey's  Sonnets 438 

Swift's  Conduct  of  the  Allies    477 
Sydney  Smith's  Plymley's  Let- 
ters   470 


TAYLOR'S  Holy  Dying      .    .  500 

Thomson's  Castle  of  Indolence  390 

Seasons    .  ...  426 


Vicar  of  Bray,  The  .    .    .    .  421 


WALLER,  Lines  on  Old  Age  .  171 
Warner's  Albion's  England  .    86 

Wither' s  Songs 440 

Wordsworth's  Prelude.    .     .328 
Intimations  of  Immortality  327 

Michael 450 

Wyat,  Sir  Thomas,  Stanzas  .  438 
Wyclif's  Sermons     ....    44 


SUMMAEIES 


OF 


LITERARY    PERIODS. 


SUMMAEIES  OF  LITERAET  PEEIODS. 


Poets 


Prbse  Writers 


Poets 


N  (A.D.  680;  author  of  a  Scripture 
•       History  in  alliterative  verse). 
[The  author  of  Beowulf . 

KING  ALFRED. 

The  compilers  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle. 

LAYAMON. 

ORMIN  (author  of  the  Ormuhnn). 
ROBERT    OF    GLOUCESTER    (author    of   a 

rhyming  Chronicle). 
ROBERT  MANNING. 
The  author  of  Havelok,  the  earliest  known 

English  romance. 
RICHARD  ROLLE  (A.D.  1340,  author  of  the 

Pricke  of  Conscience,  a  moral  poem). 


Prose  Writers 


1  As  a  rule,  learned  Anglo-Saxons,  among  whom  the  Venerable  Becle  is  the  most 
eminent,  composed  their  works  in  Latin.    The  same  may  be  said  of  writers  in  the 
Anglo-Norman  period,  particularly  during  the  early  portion  of  it. 

2  No' English  prose,  except  Homilies,  Proclamations,  Charters,  etc.,  was  produced 
in  this  period. 


co 

Cg  i-H 

H 


. 

"§ 


MlNOT. 

LANGLAND. 

CHAUCER. 

GOWER. 

Tlie  author  of  Piers  Plowman's  Crede. 

OCCLEVE. 

LYDGATE. 
TBARBOUR. 
-j  WYNTON. 
[JAMES  I. 


[Sir  JOHN  MANDEVILLE. 
Prose     I  JOHN  WYCLIFFE. 
Writers.  1  CHAUCER. 
I  TREVISA. 


553 


554 


SUMMARIES   OF   LITERARY   PERIODS. 


JOHN  KATE  (first  poet  laureate). 
HAWES. 
BARCLAY. 
SKKLTOX. 
SURREY. 
WYAT. 
SACKVILLE. 

The  authors  of  the  Mirror  for  Magistrates. 
"  1  1  I:\RYSOX. 

D  UNBAR. 

(J.v  \v.\i\   l)i>r<;LAS. 
Sir  DAVID  LYNDSAY. 
The  :iut  hors  of  the 


II 

5= 


Chester     'j*t> 
Towneley  Mysteries. 


WILLIAM 

I.  IN  \«  i:r.. 
I)r;m   ('our 
('animal 
Sir 


Sir  .J..II.N   CIIKKE. 
C'anliiial  I'm  i  . 


General  .  . 


'Sir  JOHN  FORTESCUE. 
CAXTON. 
lions. 
BALE, 

.\-«  II  \M. 


Theological 
Writers  . 


{CAPORAVE. 
».  i:\lTON. 


PECOCK. 

I,\  IIMI.I:. 

'I  VM>\I  1. 

Bishop  FISHI:I:. 

M..KI.. 


1  The  revived  study  of  the  ancient  authors,  whose  works  treat  of  men  and  women 
I  ml  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  life,  was  dilled  a  Humanity,  by  way  of  contrast  with  the 
»cholastlc  studies  then  prevalent,  which  dealt  with  terms,  causes,  Ideas,  theories, 
»ml  generally  employed  abstract  reasoning.  And  whereas  those  who  shone  In  the 
scholastic  learning  were  called  Schoolmen,  so  to  those  who  shone  in  the  new  classic;/ 
^aarning  was  given  the  name  of  Humanists. 


SUMMABIES   OF  LITEEABY  PEBIODS. 


555 


6 


CD 


LO 


SPENSER. 

SHAKSPEARE. 

SOUTHWELL. 

DANIEL. 

DRAYTON. 

CHAPMAN  (and  many  minor  poets). 

UDALL. 

SACKVILLE  and  NORTON. 

MARLOWE. 

PEELE. 

GREENE. 

SHAKSPEARE. 

BEN  JONSON. 

BEAUMONT  and  FLETCHER. 

MASSINGER. 

FORD. 

WEBSTER  (and  many  minor  dramatists). 


SPENSER. 
LYLY. 

Sir  PHILIP  SIDNEY. 
General  ,  ,  , -!  HAKLUYT. 

FRANCIS  BACON. 

BURTON. 

PUTTENHAM. 

(  HOLINSHED. 

CAMDEN. 
Historians  ,  ,  4  SPEED. 

KNOLLES. 
[  RALEIGH. 

f  JEWEL. 

Theological     I  HARDING. 
Writers  ,  ,1  HOOKER. 

[  ANDREWES. 

Philosophical  f  FRANCIS  BACON  (chief  founder  of  the  Experi- 
.    Writers  ,,  |     mental  Philosophy). 


556 


SUMMARIES    OF   LITERARY   PERIODS. 


g 


i 


BEX  Joxsox. 

The  Fantastic  School : 

COWLEY,  CRASIIAW,  &c. 
MILTON. 

GEORGE  HERBERT. 
The  Song- Writers : 

CARKW,  WALLER,  LOVELACE,  HERRICK,  &c. 
DRUMMOND  of  Hawthornden. 
WITHER. 
DRYDEX. 
SAMUEL  BUTLER. 
Karl  of  HOSCOMMOX. 
DUYDEX  (Heroic  and  other  plays). 
OTWAY. 
SHADWELL. 

KTMI:I:I.<;I;. 

WYCHKRLKY, 
CONGREVE, 


Comedy  of  Manners. 


o 
03 


General  ,  , 


.ToiIX    BUXYAX. 

ANTMOXY  a  WOOD. 
THOMAS  FULLER. 

I/AAK  W  A  LION. 
Kl(  IIAIM)  liAXTER. 

SAMUEL  I'EI-VS. 
JOHN  KYEI.YN. 
Sir  TIIUMAS  BROWNE. 


Scholars  , 


Historians 


Theological 
Writers  , 


.     SELDKN. 
[GAL* 

f  FULLER. 
Lord  CLARENDON. 

.       LlDLOW. 
i  MAY. 
WlIITLOCKB. 


TlIILLINGWORTII. 

Patristic  Divines  : 
Bishops  HALL,  TAYLOR,  BULL,  and  PEARSON 

ISAAC  BARROW. 
WILLIAM  I'EXX. 

LlOHTFOOT. 

Latitudinarian  Divines : 
LEIGIITOX,  HENRY  MORE,  CUDWORTH. 


Philosophical 
Writers  , 


HOBBES. 

CUDWORTIT. 
HARRINGTOW. 

LOCKE. 

The  Royal  Society  founded; 
Sir  ISAAC  NEWTON. 


SUMMARIES    OF   LITER AEY   PERIODS. 


557 


£ 

r 


Age  of  Anne :  POPE,  ADDI- 
SON, PRIOR,  GAY,  SWIFT. 
THOMSON. 


YOUNG. 


ADDISON. 

_2  |  STEELE, 


GRAY. 

GOLDSMITH. 

JOHNSON. 

COWPER. 

BURNS. 


FARQUHAR. 
Sir  JOHN  VANBRUGH. 
[R.  B.  SHERIDAN. 

SWIFT. 

DEFOE. 

The  Essayists  :  ADDISON,  STEELE,  &c. ;  BENJA- 
MIN FRANKLIN.* 

The  Novelists  :  RICHARDSON,  FIELDING,  STERNE, 
General  ,  ,  ,  J  SMOLLETT,  GOLDSMITH,  &c. 

Dr.  JOHNSON. 

EDMUND  BURKE. 

The  Orators :  Lord  CHATHAM,  BURKE,  Fox, 
ALEXANDER  HAMILTON,*  Hrauu 

The  author  of  the  Letters  of  Junius. 

JAMES  BOSWELL. 


Scholars  , 


r Dr.  BENTLEY. 
j  Dean  ALDRICH. 

[  PORSON. 


(  BURNETT. 

Historians  ,  ,  j  RAPIN. 
i  HUME. 


ROBERTSON.  -— . 
GIBBON.     » — 
T.  WARTON. 


Theological 
Writers  , 


Philosophical 


The  English  Deists :  TOLAND,  TINDAL,  BOLIXG- 

BHOKE,  &c. 
The  Apologists:  BENTLEY;  Bishops  BERKELEY, 

BUTLER,  and  WARBURTON;  PALEY. 

COSIYJSRS   MlDDLETON. 

Bishop  t?rt3tt7fce**eR. 
JONATHAN  EDWARDS.* 

BERKELEY  (Idealism). 

HUME  (Scepticism). 

REID,  ) 

BROWN,  >  Common-sense  Philosophy. 

DUGALD  STEWART,  J 

Bishop  BUTLER, 


HUTCHESON, 


Moral  Philosophy. 


Writers  ,  .  ]  ADAM  SMITH, 

HARTLEY, 

.PA  LEY, 

*  BURKE,  ) 

WILLIAM  GODWIN,  [•  Political  Philosophy. 

THOMAS  PAINE,       j 
;ADAM  SMITH  (Political  Economy). 

.  —  American  writers  are  distinguished  by  au  asterisk.] 


558 


SUMMARIES   OF  LITERARY  PERIODS. 


!( 


Sir  WALTER  SCOTT. 

WORDSWORTH. 

SOUTH  KV. 

COLERIDGE. 

BYRON. 

SlIELI.KY. 
IfOORE, 

KEATS. 

CRAUBI:. 

CAMPBELL. 

T.  HMHII. 

I . i : 1 1  s  i  \  II i. MANS  (and  many  minor  poets), 

IJ.  II.  DAW." 

F.  HAI.I.KCK.* 

W.  <  .    \',i:\  \NT.* 
II.    \V.    l,n\.,|  I  I  IOW.* 
SIII.IMIMN     I\NiiWl.i;s. 
JOANNX     liMI  I  Ii:. 

LYTTON-BULWEE. 


'  Oratory  : 

CANNING,  HENUT  CLAY,*  DANIEL  WEBSTER,* 
O'CONNELL,  Sir  i:«H5i.i:r  l'r.i;i..  K.  KVI-IM.M  .+ 


General  .  . 


L\MIJ.    II\/I.ITT,   ProffsxM-   Wll^-nv,    .Il.lilM.V, 

|I:\INO,*DE  Qn.\(  i.v.  M.MI.I:>«»N.* 
Noveli>tx  . 

JANE  AUSTEN.   BOOTT,   (JODWIN,  .1.   I-Y.MMOKI: 
Coori  i:.-     Hi  I.\VI;K,    Dn  M..\>,    TilACKERAY, 
II  \\\  ill":: 
WIF.I.UM   Coitr.i 
•>    SMI  in. 
TIHIMAS  CAIM.YLB. 

.InllN    Kl'MxIN. 

1CKNOR.* 


W.  MITFORD. 

.1.    I.INCiAKD. 

T.  AKXOI ,i>. 

II.    II  \I.I.\M. 

\V.  II.  PRESCOTT.* 


Historians  .  , 


fW.  E. 

Theological     I  J.  MILNI  i:. 
Writers  ,  ,  1  S.  T.  COLERIDGE. 
ROBERT  HALL. 


(I.  r.ROTE. 

I.  Ii.  MACAULAY. 
<..  BANCROFT.* 
CARLVI  i;. 


AVlIATELY. 

K.   15.    I'l  >I.V. 

J.  H.  NEWMAN. 


Philosophical 
Writers  ,  , 


Sir  JAMES  MACKI 


.II.IM.MV  UF.NTHAM. 
DAVID  RICARDO. 

WlIATELY. 

.JOHN  STUART  MILL. 
Sir  WILLIAM  HAMILTON. 


[NOTE.  —American  writers  are  distinguished  by  an  asterisk.] 

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